


How to Tame Your Lion

by SilentStarlightSky



Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Cute, F/M, Fluffy, Humor, Lighthearted, Romance, sorceress and knight bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2019-08-23 09:25:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 63,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16616312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilentStarlightSky/pseuds/SilentStarlightSky
Summary: Rinoa wants her relationship with Squall to improve, so she decides to take things into her own hands by doing some relationship research in the library. What is she getting herself into? (Silly and awkward sorceress and knight bonding stuff.)





	1. Chapter 1

Patches of warm afternoon sunlight scattered across Rinoa's bare shoulders as she readjusted herself uncomfortably on one of the Quad's concrete planters. Many other students congregated throughout the area, lounging and milling around between classes. Some SeeDs could be overheard discussing battle strategies with each other as she reached up her hands and started to stretch. Her back had just started to ache as she had been sitting there for longer than intended.

_They really need to get some comfortable furniture out here._

She drew her knees up under her chin and once again tried to lose herself in her book, but she only managed to flip her way through a few more pages before giving up. _Ack, this stupid romantic fairytale junk is making me feel worse._ The book made a thud as she irritably threw it down on the concrete next to her.

Although Rinoa had friends at Balamb Garden, she wasn't a cadet or a SeeD, and despite her cheerful smiles, sometimes she just felt alone and out of place. People in sharp uniforms were always around, either talking about missions or rushing from one task to the next. She often felt that she stood out awkwardly in a sea of uniformed precision. She often wasn't sure what she should be doing or where she belonged in the world, and becoming a sorceress had not made things easier.

Rinoa huffed and squinted her eyes against the bright sun and focused towards the stage at the end of the Quad. She recognized Selphie and Irvine's figures standing around and laughing while eating ice cream cones. Irvine seemed to be teasing Selphie by repeatedly bumping into her arm while she tried to lick her cone, which resulted in her getting it all over her face. Selphie seemed to like Irvine's teasing attention, and she playfully retaliated by energetically shoving him. The tall, lanky gunman was completely caught off guard, and in an instant, he was flat on his back with an ice cream cone smashed upside down on his coat.

After a brief pause, Selphie quickly pulled him back off the ground with much more strength than seemed possible. While Irvine was still dazed, they started to walk towards where Rinoa was seated under the tree. Rinoa self-consciously tucked her book behind her while they approached. She couldn't help but envy their casual comfortableness with each other as Irvine wrapped his arm around Selphie and started to share the remaining ice cream cone. She gave them a smile and a wave. Selphie waved back and Irvine tipped his cowboy hat as they happily continued past her and back inside of Garden.

_They are actually enjoying each other's company while I'm sitting out here reading a fairytale by myself. I wish Squall was more like that with me... talking, laughing, and cuddling up with me... Wait! Ugh, did I just wish Squall was more like Irvine?_

_Gross! What is the matter with me? Nobody should be more like Irvine. Oops, he's okay for Selphie, I guess._

_I shouldn't be jealous of their relationship!_ With new determination in her eyes, she jumped off the concrete planter, stretched out her stiff legs, and started to walk briskly towards Balamb Garden's Library. _First thing, I'm going to return this book. The sappy romantic parts were just making me unhappy anyways._

 _Plus, all the sorceresses in this book are evil, and it's hurting my feelings! No wonder everybody is prejudiced against sorceresses. Well, I guess the Sorceress Wars didn't help either..._ She forced her teeth into a smile and swung her arms as she went inside Garden and walked down the hallway towards the library.

* * *

Rinoa had fallen in love with Balamb Garden's library from the moment she had been given the school tour; it was a small inviting and peaceful place. Light filtered down upon the massive wooden stacks from windows set high in the ceiling. The soft green carpet turned her footsteps silent as she entered. Rinoa threw her book onto the check-in counter without even breaking her stride as she continued walking towards the back. She continued to walk to the far side of the book stacks and paced a bit while collecting her thoughts. She felt alone, and wanted to talk with somebody. Her heart was suddenly cheered as she heard Zell's boisterous voice echoing through the quiet library. She spun around to go chat with him, but quickly stopped and continued to stay on the far side of the book stacks unseen. He was happily flirting with the library girl at the check-out desk, and it seemed that she should remain hidden from him.

Another pang of envy hit her, and she looked down and away from the cute little scene by the front of the library. Looking down at the green carpet beneath her feet, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath while leaning against the shelves. Her eyes slowly blinked open while settling on a section of books about psychology and interpersonal relationships. Her eyebrows rose in fascination while she started to formulate a plan.

_Now these are some books I should be reading! I should grab a bunch and check them out._

_Wait, it wouldn't look good if word got around that the Commander's girlfriend is reading up on relationship self-help books. Um, what should I do? Maybe I could read some of them right here?_

Quickly grabbing a few of the relationship books off the shelves, she also randomly grabbed a few other books off the stacks to hide what she was reading. She went to sit down at a student study carrel and spread some of the titles all around her.

Relationships for Dummies: A Commonsense Approach to Romance _. I'm not a dummy!_

How to Find True Love _. I think I already found it, now what do I do?_

Emotions and Relationships: A Beginner's Guide _. Is this going to be helpful?_

Don't Settle for One-Sided Relationships _. Is that what my problem is?_

I'm Not a Mind Reader: How to Know What People are Thinking _. Maybe I am a mind reader, I should test out my sorceress powers more..._

_Oh, I'll just dive right in and see if I find something useful. I hope nobody notices what I'm reading._

Rinoa shifted in her seat while flipping through the pile of books. After awhile her eyes started to glaze over as she felt that this had been a silly idea. She'd been fruitlessly reading about relationship strategies for over half an hour, and felt that she deserved a break. While looking around at her messily piled books, a cute picture of a dog and cat cuddling caught her attention. _Cute, I must have grabbed a book about pets too. It wouldn't hurt to look through it for a while._

She cracked the book open and it fell to a chapter about feral cats and how to tame them.

 _Oh, the poor kitties! They just need somebody to love and care for them! Sweet kitties, I'll love you all!_ Rinoa's heart started to melt, and she continued to read:

"Feral cats are wild and have not had much direct contact with humans. They often are fearful of people, flee when approached, and attack when cornered. Those with negative human experiences will be the most difficult to tame. A traumatized cat may never want to be picked up or petted even if eventually kept as a pet. It will take some time to tame a feral cat, do not rush the process. Do not attempt to pet a fearful cat, let it gain trust and approach you first."

_Wow, this is sounding really familiar. Have I read this book before?_

_But I'm more of a dog person._

Rinoa fumbled with her necklace while thinking. Her fingers felt the smooth metal of the rings that dangled on the end of the chain. Turning them around in her hand she noticed the shape of a lion looking back at her. Her gaze swept from the engraved lion to the pictures of cats in her pet book. She paused and blinked several times before reacting.

 _Wait, lions are cats! Cats! Lions! SQUALL! This pet book about feral cats is reminding me of Squall!_ _Maybe this book about pets will help my relationship with Squall more than the self-help books will._

 _And I can check these out of the library guilt-free. It will just look like I'm learning about dogs and cats to be a better pet owner for Angelo!_ She smiled to herself and grabbed the pet book to check it out. _I'm gonna make this work! Just you wait Squall, I'll tame you! Then you'll be my perfect loving cat friend... I mean boyfriend!_

She abruptly stood up and pushed away from the student study carrel. Gathering all the books in her arms, she turned to leave. Before walking up to Zell and the library girl she happily tossed the relationship books on a reshelving cart before anybody saw her with them. The cart squeaked with the sudden force and slightly wheeled away from the wall as she stomped past it and towards the front desk.

"Hiya Zell!" Rinoa said cheerily as she slipped her pet book towards the library girl to be checked out. "What are you doing in the library today?"

"Um, I'm just here to... check some things out..." Zell said while turning red in the face and fiddling with the back of his blond hair and glancing between the library girl and Rinoa.

"Um, check out some BOOKs I mean. He shifted his weight from foot to foot while cracking his knuckles nervously.

"Oh, okay. I'll let you get back to... um... that... I'll see you later!" Rinoa felt like a third wheel and made a quick exit.

_It's obvious he's interested in the library girl. I should really find out what her name is, then it would be less awkward. Oooh, now I'm kinda getting jealous of them too!_

_Considering I have a boyfriend, I'm awfully lonely most of the time._ She waved goodbye while leaving them.

* * *

Rinoa continued out into Balamb Garden's main circular hallway and leaned against the banister. The tranquil sound of water flowing beneath the walkway calmed her mind. As people moved past her she continued to smile happily no matter what she felt inside. She didn't want to give people an extra reason to dislike her, it was bad enough she was a sorceress and dating their beloved Commander. Looking friendly and not like a dangerous sorceress was a personal priority for her, especially when she was amongst so many Garden people. She felt somebody approach her from behind, and she started to turn, her heart leapt hopeful that it was Squall.

"Hello Rinoa," Quistis said calmly with her palms out. "Squall had a lot of work to catch up on today, so he wanted me to tell you that he wouldn't be able to have dinner with you tonight in the cafeteria." Quistis bristled, waiting for Rinoa to blame the bearer of bad news, but Rinoa, just stood there and sighed. "Um, if you want, you can join me and Xu for dinner. It could be a girls' night," Quistis said sweetly.

_Girls' Night?! What if every night for the rest of my life turns into girls' night? Ah, I don't want to end up alone like Quistis or Xu. Not that there's anything wrong with that! But at least they have serious careers. I'm a teen high school dropout runaway who got turned into a sorceress. What a mess!_

_Maybe I should be working on myself, and then focus on my relationship with Squall._

_Oh, this is getting depressing. Thanks a lot Squall, now I'm overthinking things like you! Okay, one thing at a time!_

Quistis was getting a bit flustered by Rinoa's awkward silence, but she kept waiting patiently for the other woman to collect her thoughts. Rinoa kept looking down at her feet while twisting the toe of her boot into the floor. She suddenly came to herself and looked up at Quistis.

"Um, thanks, but that's okay. I was working on something too. I had some reading and studying I wanted to get done tonight. I don't have time to hang out. Thank you for the offer though," Rinoa said while twirling her necklace with one hand. Quistis tilted her head to the side and didn't know what Rinoa would be reading up on, but she decided it would be best not to inquire. She nodded her head politely and walked away.

As afternoon tuned into evening, Rinoa slowly walked back towards the dorms to her room. Not being an official student, it had taken some effort to get a private room. Well not much of an effort on her part. No one really wanted to room with the sorceress. Selphie or Quistis would of been glad to, if she had insisted, but they were already SeeDs and had their own private suites. So Cid decided that Garden's best interests would be served by having the sorceress under their watchful eyes, and it would also keep Commander Leonhart tethered to Garden if Rinoa were kept nearby. Cid Kramer made sure that Rinoa had a private room for herself while she was at Balamb Garden, and that she was treated in a manner similar to official SeeDs.

Rinoa was very happy to stay at Garden even though her private room was kept a bit apart from the others. It was placed in the corridor usually reserved for official Garden guests and dignitaries, and therefore it was quiet and lonely most of the time. While sometimes bothered by this fact, she was okay with it tonight, as she needed to do some serious thinking.

 _Okay, let's get planning!_ She clapped her hands and rubbed them together eagerly.


	2. Chapter 2

It was starting to get late as Rinoa looked out her window. The night sky was clear and she could see the moon illuminating the peaceful and cool fields outside of Balamb Garden. She leaned towards the window and let out a little huff of breath that briefly misted on her window before disappearing. Drawing her head back, she turned around.

The calming view of the blue fields outside her window was in direct contrast to her bright, noisy, and pink room. The intense overhead light cast shadows all around her. Clothes, books, and dog toys laid throughout the floor in piles. Her room also contained a bed, a couch and a desk, all which had some form of clothes or electronics on top. The upbeat sounds of pop music were bouncing off her walls as she absentmindedly sang along under her breath. As she had nobody else living in the rooms near her, she felt she could blare music whenever she wanted. At least there was one perk to being separate from the other people in Garden.

She'd been pacing around most of the night trying to formulate a plan that would help with her relationship with Squall. Earlier in the day she had gone to the library to look up relationship advice from self-help books, but she found a pet book by chance that outlined how to tame a feral cat. The pet book had better advice by far, as Squall had similar characteristics to a feral cat.

She was giddy with excitement as she spun around in her room trying to think of practical ways to make her plan work. Angelo kept weaving happily around the room, trying to not get stepped on, barking and jumping wanting to gain her attention. She giggled to herself as she realized that as Squall was similar to a cat, Rinoa was similar to her dog, Angelo. When she was with Squall she wanted him to always acknowledge her presence, but he was much more calm and aloof like a cat. She knew he liked her, but he was a lot more distant about it than she would have liked.

Rinoa was also a little bit giddy because she had skipped her normal cafeteria dinner in order to stay in her room and plan. Granola bar wrappers, water bottles, and orange peels littered the floor. She walked over to her fluffy pink bed and gracelessly flopped down on it while letting out a big huff of breath. Angelo joined her on the bed, tired from jumping and playing around the room. He settled in by placing his front legs on Rinoa's thigh and laid his head down on her leg. Her stomach let out a little growl, and Angelo's ears perked up at the noise as he raised his head staring at her quizzically. She patted him on his furry head.

"Don't look at me like that Angelo! I eat healthily most of the time. Tonight I just thought it would be better to stay in here instead of going to the cafeteria. Okay, I'll try to eat something else, something healthy."

She sat up and searched around her room for some more snacks and came across a box of dry cereal. Digging her hand into the box, she started eating a few mouthfuls of it.

"See Angelo, this cereal is fortified with many important vitamins and minerals," she mumbled with crumbs falling all over her shirt and floor.

_Time to stop arguing with my dog and get back to business._

She reached over Angelo's head and grabbed her pet book that was laying on her pink comforter. While flipping through her book, her eyes settled on one of the paragraphs about taming a feral cat. She skimmed to gain some more information.

Feeding a feral cat could help a person earn its trust. Placing food out for it is a sure way to gain its attention. Do not rush the process. Take it slowly. By rushing the process you might scare away the cat entirely, and cause it to seek safety elsewhere. Many times a feral cat if overly frightened, will find new territory to call home.

_Okay Rinoa, take it slowly. Be a food source. Let the "cat" approach you. Give him space, so he doesn't get scared away. This might take awhile._

While thinking of food her stomach growled again, and she decided to get a pizza delivery from Balamb. Luckily her favorite pizza place's number was on her speed dial, and it was open late. She reached over and picked up her cell phone from the nightstand.

_Maybe skipping dinner wasn't a good idea._ As in reply her stomach growled for the third time. Angelo picked his head up off Rinoa's thigh and looked directly at Rinoa's stomach and returned the growl.

_I wonder if Squall ever managed to grab some food_. _Hey, maybe I could get a large pizza and take some of the leftovers up to his office, just in case he's still there._

Rinoa started to think about pizza toppings. She liked most every pizza variety, so she could be pretty indecisive. She liked sausage, pepperoni, on occasion veggie, but her favorite was a supreme pizza.

_Well, I am really hungry, so maybe I'll get a supreme pizza. Oh, but I don't know if Squall likes supreme, or even what he likes to eat at all. Maybe I'll just go ahead and order a cheese pizza, just to be on the safe side. Everyone likes cheese pizza. I'll figure out stuff later._

Having made the decision, Rinoa called and placed the order and paid for the pizza, delivery fee, and tip by giving her credit card number over the phone. The teen on the line said that her order would be delivered to the front gate of Garden within 45 minutes.

_Now all I have to do is sit and wait._

Rinoa looked down on her crumb covered clothes. She half-heartedly used her hands to brush off the crumbs that stuck to her shirt. She sighed as she only removed some of the crumbs, the rest remained stuck. She thought about changing her clothes as she did not want Squall to see her in this state, as he was always chiding her about her messiness. He would definitely comment on the granola bar and cereal on the front of her blouse. Well since it was Squall, he wouldn't VERBALLY make a comment, but she could tell from his body language. Sometimes facepalms spoke louder than words.

_I want to look casual like this wasn't planned, but I want to look cute. What should I wear?_

She opened her closet and noticed that there wasn't anything hanging there that was suitable for her plan. Everything seemed too dressy. In the bottom of the closet sat her clean clothes pile.

_Maybe there is something here that I can wear._

She rummaged around until she found something acceptable. She pulled on a light blue t-shirt with a chocobo graphic printed across the chest and stretchy black workout pants. Now all she needed was shoes. She looked around at the bottom of the closet until she found some plain black flats. As she was pulling the shoes out of the closet she heard a loud thump at the door.

As she continued to pull on her clothes, the thumping stopped and was replaced Selphie's loud voice, "Rinoa, Rinoa! I know you're in there! I can hear the music halfway down the hall. I didn't see you or Squall at dinner. I wanted to make sure you're OK. Rinoa, Rinoa open up."

"I'll be there in a minute Selphie, I'm changing my clothes." As the banging on the door continued.

Rinoa finished pulling on her chocobo t-shirt, trying to hurry. She walked to the door and opened it as Selphie was in the process of knocking again. Obviously she hadn't heard Rinoa's last statement through the loud music and Selphie's constant "Rinoa, Rinoa" chant.

As soon as she opened the door Selphie turned her knocking into a huge hug. The hug was so huge and forceful that Rinoa's legs got tangled up with Selphie's and they both wound up on the floor. Luckily they landed in the softness of a big clothes pile. Selphie had not been deterred or even surprised that they'd both been knocked on the ground. In fact she was not even fazed as she bounced up and tried to straighten her yellow dress.

" Rinoa, I just wanted to check up on you and make sure you weren't sick, "Selphie exclaimed. She looked around and was relieved that Rinoa seemed to be fine. "I just thought it was weird that I didn't see you anywhere all night. I thought you and Squall were planning on having dinner in the cafeteria tonight."

"It's okay Selphie, I just wanted to catch up on some reading. I just ordered a pizza if you want to stay and have some."

Selphie eagerly nodded her head at the thought of pizza. Although she'd eaten dinner hours before, somebody with a fast paced metabolism like Selphie had to eat often.

"YEAH! PIZZA!" Selphie jumped up and raised her arms in the air while doing her victory dance that was usually reserved for battles... or in this case, pizza. She nudged some stuff out of the way to make a place for them to eat.

Selphie, remembering her primary mission for coming to see Rinoa , looked at her friend and asked again if she was doing well.

Rinoa glanced over at the stack of books. _Unless I want Selphie in on this I better convince her I'm fine and steer the conversation into different territory._

"It's okay, Selphie. I'm just a little frustrated with Squall always being busy. I thought I would take advantage of a little bit extra 'me' time. I was going to train Angelo and do some work on my sorceress powers," Rinoa said with a forced smile. "Plus, if Squall were here, I wouldn't be able to blast pop music."

This seemed to be enough to convince Selphie. Rinoa wondered if Quistis had anything to do with Selphie checking up on her tonight. Rinoa could see the imaginary conversation between Quistis and Selphie forming in her head. Quistis would ask if Selphie could check on Rinoa and then report back to her in the morning about her emotional state. She wouldn't be surprised if Cid had ordered both Selphie and Quistis to make sure that Rinoa was happy. Cid should have ordered Squall to come check up on her, but he probably had different plans for him.

_Don't we all have different plans for him._

As she was having this internal dialog, Selphie was chatting about her latest mission and how Irvine had done something to annoy her. As the girls continued to chat, it didn't take long for the pizza to be delivered. The gatekeeper at the front of the Garden called to let Rinoa know that the pizza had arrived. He was in the process of telling Rinoa to come pick up her pizza when Selphie grabbed the phone away from her. She happily sweet talked the gatekeeper into getting a random junior cadet to run it up to Rinoa's room and then hung up the phone.

All of Garden knew where Rinoa's room was. It wouldn't be hard for him to find it, the lone room in an usually unused corridor. Junior cadets stayed far, far away from her. No matter how cute and sweet she looked, she still was a sorceress. It probably was the fear of Selphie that got anybody to agree to do it.

Within a few minutes a flustered looking junior cadet arrived at Rinoa's door and knocked timidly. Selphie flung the door open and grabbed the pizza and slammed it back in his face. She then quickly reopened the door and said thanks before slamming the door again. She thought for a moment and then reopened the door for a third time. The junior cadet hadn't moved at all, and his face was still stunned. Selphie reached into her back pocket and pulled out a few Gil and then handed them over to him.

"Hey kid, here's some money for your trouble! See ya!"

She turned and then slammed the door yet again. After a few moments, they could hear the random junior cadet scamper away. Selphie put her hands on her hips and wanted to get started on some pizza time.

Selphie started up a chorus of "PIZZA, PIZZA, take my hunger away" that sounded strangely like Selphie's train song. All of Selphie's songs sounded pretty much the same.

They eagerly sat on the floor and opened the cardboard pizza box. The aroma of steamy hot pizza wafted up to their noses. Rinoa couldn't stand her hunger anymore, and she grabbed a slice and started stuffing pizza in her face. Selphie quickly followed her lead.

"Rinoa, why'd you get such a large pizza just for yourself? Did you know I was going to show up? Do sorceresses have psychic powers?" Selphie leaned in with her eyes wide and her mouth full of pizza. Clearly hoping that her friend had psychic powers.

"Um, I was just really hungry Selphie. I guess I overestimated how much I'd be able to eat on my own." Rinoa blushed while answering her. "It doesn't look like we'll be able to eat it all on our own. So no, I do not have psychic powers."

Selphie looked sad.

"What I meant to say was that I don't have psychic powers THAT I KNOW OF."

Selphie perked up and continued to eat pizza.

"Well, I guess you could just keep the leftovers in your mini-fridge," Selphie stated.

Rinoa ignored her statement and pretended like she didn't have a mini-fridge at all.

"I'd hate for perfectly good food to go to waste. I bet there are a lot of hungry guys around Garden tonight who'd love some pizza slices," Rinoa said.

Selphie started to pick up on what Rinoa was hinting at. And she nodded along with her friend's suggestion. Even though they were still eating, Selphie picked up the pizza box and started walking out the door. Rinoa got halfway out the door before realizing that she didn't have any shoes on. She quickly ran back into her room and grabbed her little black flats, and followed Selphie down the hall while continuing to finish eating dinner.

Selphie instinctively knew to wander in the direction of the commander's office.

_Maybe Selphie has psychic powers._

Rinoa smiled while following her with a slice of pizza in hand. While she walked she made sure to look down at herself, and she was happy to see that she had managed to avoid getting sauce on her clothes as she was eating her pizza. She tended to do that sometimes. She felt confident now.

As it was getting to be later in the evening they didn't pass more than a dozen students in the hall. All of them stopped momentarily as the smell of fresh pizza hit them. With Selphie leading the way they made it to the commander's office in record time.

* * *

The commander's office was dark. Squall's form was barely illuminated by his computer screen's glow. He'd been feeling exhausted and couldn't think much longer tonight. His hands started fiddling with the objects on his desk, automatically straightening things up and arranging them in neat stacks and piles, with everything aligned at crisp right angles to the desk edges. He lowered his head slowly to his keyboard and laid there for a few moments. Or maybe longer than a few moments. He'd been getting sleepy.

His mouth started salivating before his nose even realized he was smelling hot pizza.

_Where is that coming from? When was the last time I ate something?,_ Squall thought to himself _._

As he heard noises from down the hall he pulled his head off his keyboard quickly. Harsh light flooded his dilated eyes as Selphie mercilessly flipped on his office lights without warning. His tired eyes barely registering that she was the one holding a pizza box. He sleepily blinked several times before noticing Rinoa's form taking shape, previously hidden behind Selphie.

"We got some pizza delivered, and we decided that we couldn't finish it all by ourselves. It would be a shame for this nice hot pizza to go to waste," Rinoa said while daintily nibbling at a piece. She giggled lightly to herself when she noticed that Squall's iconic forehead scar was now emblazoned with the imprints of his keyboard. He looked cute and a little bit silly, but she'd never tell him that.

Squall wiped the side of his mouth, staring longingly at the pizza box. To their surprise he declined their offer of pizza while his stomach growled loudly in protest.

Selphie got annoyed by his unnecessary stoic response and thrust the pizza box directly into his hands. If Squall was a split second slower in his response time the pizza would be all over the carpet in his office. He held the box a moment, and then politely handed it back to Rinoa. His eyes having now acclimated to the light, and he noticed that Rinoa had a big spot of pizza sauce smeared on her right cheek.

"You're looking saucy tonight Rinoa," Squall said dryly.

"Thanks, " Rinoa said, while the rest of her face turned nearly as red as the pizza stain, blissfully unaware of the pun.

"Thank you for offering the pizza, but I don't have time for this right now," he said. He was a bit extra grumpy from sleepiness and hunger. Although if he just ate something he wouldn't be so grumpy.

"Okay, we'll let you get back to work," Rinoa said.

To his complete surprise and displeasure, Rinoa actually took the box and didn't press the matter further. Squall expected at least a few more attempts to get him to eat the pizza. He would have given in fairly quickly, but he didn't want to look too needy.

Instead she turned grabbing Selphie's arm and exited into the hallway while saying a brief goodnight to him.

Once out in the hallway. She put the pizza box on a table and fanned some of the aroma backwards in his direction. Winking at Selphie, she pulled her down the hallway and around the corner.

After a few minutes, Squall felt that they had left, he stuck his head out through his doorway and looked from side to side to make sure nobody was there. When he felt that the coast was clear, he ventured slowly into the hallway and followed the delicious smell of pizza that still lingered. The pizza box was quickly found awaiting him on the hallway table. Obviously it was left for him in case he changed his mind. He was even more cautious as he lifted up the lid of the box and brought a piece to his lips and started eating.

Unbeknownst to Squall, Selphie and Rinoa hadn't actually left the area. They were hiding around a corner waiting to see if he'd ever come out to eat. They silently giggled to each other as they saw him eating their pizza.

"Oh look, he's so cute when he's eating," Rinoa whispered to a giggling Selphie.

"Rinoa, you're talking about Squall like he's Angelo," Selphie whispered.

"Oh, was I?" Rinoa smirked.

Squall having finished the first piece of pizza, immediately felt better. He called out to the darkness and said, "thank you Rinoa," just in case she was still nearby. He then picked up the pizza box and went back into his office to finish his work.

Rinoa, very pleased with herself for the plan going so well turned and motioned for Selphie to return to the dorms.

Selphie, realizing that she had done her best to cheer up her friend and decided to head back to her room.

"Rinoa, it's getting late I should head back to the dorms," Selphie yawned and placed her hand over her mouth. "I had a blast tonight."

"Me too," Rinoa laughed. "See you at lunch tomorrow."

Selphie said her goodnight and left Rinoa to head back to her room alone.

Rinoa started chuckling again as she pictured Squall tentatively eating the pizza. It was like he was a squirrel with a nut. So much of the time everyone saw him as the commander, a strong person capable of making hard decisions. And he was that person, but he also was a person who had trouble accepting help or admitting a need.

Again the picture of Squall looking around in order to not get caught eating pizza filled her mind and she burst out laughing.

When she returned to her room, Angelo jumped at Rinoa, excited to see her. She flopped down on the couch, tired but satisfied. She would have been happy to crawl into bed and sleep right then, but Angelo was whimpering and looked like he needed to be taken outside. It was late, but it had to be done. She opened up her door again and Angelo bolted out. Rinoa ran to catch up.

A half hour later Rinoa was finding her way back to her room again. She thought she heard something before she turned down her empty corridor. Taking hold of Angelo's collar she shushed him and peeped around the corner.

Squall was standing in front of her door appearing to be deep in thought. He raised his hand up to knock and then did nothing. Just standing there with his fist tentatively in the air, looking unsure of himself. His hand slowly lowered to his side. Then immediately it went up to knock again, but he still did nothing. He glanced at his watch.

_He really does think too much!_

Squall sighed and turned to leave down the corridor in the opposite direction of where Rinoa and Angelo were hiding. After she was sure he'd left, she went into her room. Pulling back her covers and getting into bed with her head full of thoughts. She took a deep breath and settled back into her soft pillow.

_I think my plan is already starting to work... I should... try more... again... tomorrow..._

And then she was suddenly asleep with Angelo curled up beside her.


	3. Chapter 3

Rinoa awoke to Angelo's bark. The light peaked from behind clouds sending a beam of light into her room. Judging by the light it was midmorning. After throwing on some clothes she took Angelo out on a nice walk around Garden, and then began getting ready for her scheduled lunch date with Selphie. Very few things in her life were scheduled these days. Having no official capacity within Garden, it was up to Rinoa to find things to do with her time throughout the day. At first it was like a nice vacation after defeating Ultimecia, but it did get a little bit lonely and boring sometimes. Not that she was complaining. She was able to fill up most days doing things she enjoyed, such as going on walks with Angelo, reading, or spending time with Selphie and Quistis. Mostly Selphie.

Her thoughts wandered to her planned lunch date with Selphie. Well, it probably wasn't just going to be Selphie because Zell, Irvine, and Quistis usually ate lunch at the same time. She mulled over in her mind the best way to approach the subject about Squall's habits.

_Well I could mention that one time we were in Timber... No that would be too round about. If I'm too sneaky, everyone will start to suspect that something is up. Maybe the best approach is to be like Squall and be direct. Well, maybe not that direct. I could ask about Squall's favorite foods under the guise of using it to cook for my boyfriend and surprise him. It's normal for girlfriends to surprise their boyfriends with food._

While she was thinking Rinoa had showered, put on some make-up, and was in the process of standing once again in front of her closet that contained very little in the way of useable clothes. She really should do laundry soon. The Garden provided a service for a nominal fee to wash clothes, but she didn't really trust the cadets running the laundry service to wash her clothes well. She wasn't too confident that once they knew they were the sorceress' clothes, that they would come back in one piece, or come back with more stains than when she had handed them over. She just always did it herself, and since being at Garden she always had the time. Plenty of time.

She wasn't really up for searching high and low for the perfect outfit, so she just threw on a simple jean skirt and a blue blouse. For her shoes she grabbed the slip on black flats from the night before, and although they were comfortable, they tended to be a little big and loose on her.

Rinoa gave herself a once over in the mirror, deemed herself acceptable, before exiting her room and heading to lunch.

The day was overcast making the light diffuse as it came through the cafeteria windows. The lights on the walls shone brightly giving the room a cozy feel. Being around noon, the Balamb Garden cafeteria was buzzing full student chatter and the clanking noises of forks, plates, and glasses of people eating lunch. The aromas of multiple hot foods mixed together and filled the air with a distinctive smell. The small cafeteria barely contained enough room for such a large school. Students and SeeDs were either waiting in line for food or in groups waiting for a place to sit in order to eat lunch before continuing with classes or mission debriefings.

Rinoa had just finished grabbing food from the lunch line when she spotted that her friends were already sitting at their normal table in the far corner. Picking her way around groups of students, she pulled up a seat between Selphie and Quistis, and sat across the way from Irvine and Zell.

Most of her friends were silently eating, except for Zell who was talking about the proper way to punch an opponent. It was all Rinoa could do not to laugh as Zell was doing air punches. The rest of the table was doing the best they could to ignore him, aside from Selphie, and eat their lunches in peace.

She looked down and noticed that Zell had finished his meal.

"Hi guys!" Rinoa said cheerily. "No hot dogs today, Zell?"

"Unfortunately no," Zell said.

Rinoa knew when they did serve hot dogs, Zell's plate would be piled high, and he would spend the entire meal eating anywhere from five to ten hot dogs.

She looked over at Selphie's lunch selection. "You're having pizza again Selphie?!" She glanced over at her friend who was in the process of stuffing pizza into her face, much like their late night snack the evening before.

"Rinoa, that was hours ago! That pizza only made me have a bigger appetite for more! And that was a plain cheese pizza, this one has Galbadian bacon and pineapple on it!"

Rinoa just looked at her smiling friend and shrugged as she started to pick at her pasta.

"Yea, about toppings. I was wondering what kind of pizzas everybody liked," Rinoa said thoughtfully.

"Sausage!" yelled Zell while making a fist and smiling.

"Veggie," said Quistis without any hesitation.

"Barbeque chicken or meat lovers," said Irvine lazily.

"I've never met a pizza I didn't love Rinoa!" Selphie said while clasping her hands together. "Except maybe barbeque chicken or meat lovers." She made a side glance at Irvine, but all he did was raise his eyebrow and wink at her.

"Um, does anybody know what Squall likes on his pizza?" Rinoa said shyly while pretending that she barely cared to hear the answer.

Nobody seemed to know the answer, so Rinoa continued to talk.

"I was wondering if you guys knew what types of foods Squall likes. I was just thinking that I don't know anything like that about him. I'd ask, but he's always so busy. I don't want to bother him. He's probably stuck in a meeting right now too." Rinoa looked down at her plate sheepishly and pushed some vegetables around with her fork.

Everybody was lost in thought for a few moments.

"I don't know if I've ever noticed Squall having any sort of food preference. He always just eats and leaves without comment," Quistis stated while looking towards the ceiling. "And I would know, I've been eyeing him for years," she said authoritatively.

Rinoa glanced at Quistis uncomfortably and started to twirl the rings on her necklace nervously.

"Yea, Quistis is right. I don't think I've noticed him having a favorite food either. That's kinda totally creepy and weird," Selphie said with a happy smile on her face.

"Well, maybe if you guys help me think of some nice foods, I can think of something fun to make him. What types of foods do you guys like?" Rinoa was feeling self-conscious and wanted to steer the conversation to other things.

Everybody leaned forward, excited to share their favorites with Rinoa.

"Barbeque, chili, chicken fried steak, pecan pie," drawled Irvine while slapping his gloved hand on the table and rubbing his belly.

"Salmon salad topped with a light vinaigrette," said Quistis.

"Lemon cupcakes, lollipops, pixy stix, pop rocks!" sang Selphie.

"Hot dogs!" said Zell.

Everybody looked at Zell and gave him an exasperated eyeroll.

"What?! I like other foods too!" He tilted his head to the side while he tried to quickly think of something. His chair started to tip backwards dangerously. "Bratwurst! Bratwurst is pretty good! I also like pretzels and bread!" Zell said smugly. He leaned forward and the front legs on his chair crashed back noisily to the floor.

"And you know what? Squall might like hotdogs too. During the Battle of the Gardens, Squall commanded the cafeteria staff to put the hotdogs in the secret shelter and not leave any for the enemy."

Everyone at this point was only half paying attention to Zell's hot dog story.

Rinoa continued to inquire. "Since you guys grew up together at Edea's orphanage, do you remember any favorite foods from when you were children?" Rinoa asked. "Maybe Squall liked something back then."

The group sat around looking in different directions, trying to remember their early childhood together in Centra. Because of the usage of Guardian Forces, sometimes they had trouble accessing early memories. Irvine was the first to speak.

"I remember Edea would sometimes bake us fresh cookies," he said while tilting his cowboy hat back off his forehead and squinting his eyes.

"Chocolate chip cookies! I remember now," Selphie said. "They were so warm, soft, and gooey coming right out of the oven! They smelled so sweet and nice!" She put her hands to her face and placed her elbows on the table while remembering fondly. Selphie had a sweet tooth.

"Oh, and freshly popped popcorn too," Zell chimed in. We'd snack on the cookies and popcorn sometimes when..."

"When Matron would read us stories in the evening," Quistis finished while nodding her head.

"Yea, that was so much fun! I loved snacking while listening to Matron's stories," Selphie said. "I bet even Squall was having fun."

"Tch, I don't remember the stories as much as I remember Seifer shoving and pinching me while I was trying to listen," Zell said in an irritated voice. "Maybe if Matron wasn't distracted by Squall clinging to her skirt, she would have done something about Seifer."

"Oh yea, remember how Squall would snuggle up between Sis and Matron. You wouldn't know it by the way he is now, but he was a clingy and scared little guy. Hey Rinoa, maybe you should bake him cookies and read him a story," Selphie teased while lightly slapping Rinoa's shoulder.

"Yea, Squall was a little scaredy cat," laughed Zell.

Selphie kicked him under the table and pointed her finger in his face. "You're the LAST person who should be making fun of Squall! You were the biggest crybaby of the group." She slammed her hand down on the tabletop.

"Take that back!" cried Zell, shaking his fists.

Rinoa stood up suddenly and her chair clattered back behind her. She started to move out of the way of her violent friends. "Thanks guys! I'm going to get going now."

While they were talking and eating their lunch, the cafeteria had emptied out and it was only about half full. The orphanage gang kept yelling at each other and barely noticed that Rinoa was leaving. She continued out into the main circular hall of Garden.

_Wow, once they get their memories going, their emotions start to really flow._

Rinoa was briskly walking away from the clamor of the cafeteria. The cooling calmness and the serene sound of the running water of the hallway was a welcome relief for her. The open expanse of Garden's hub was in sharp contrast to the small cafeteria that she left. A few students walked past her as she headed back to her room. She let her mind empty as she looked at her quick moving little feet that were carrying her away from her boisterous friends, completely not watching where she was walking.

Her peacefulness was suddenly interrupted as something knocked her flat on her back. Rinoa's mind was stunned as she felt the cold hard marble floor beneath herself and she saw one of her black ballet slippers fly through the air and land with a splash in the Balamb Garden fountain. Her eyes tracked up from the splash to find the object she'd run into.

"Squall?" Rinoa blinked and looked confused.

Squall looked down at her and then at her shoe that was quickly sinking in the water. He tilted one way and then another, then hesitated for second before he offered his hand to help her up. Rinoa looked down, brushing the front of blouse and skirt to make herself presentable. It also hid her embarrassment from running directly into Squall.

Once he was sure she was fine, he leaned down and quickly stuck his entire arm in the cold blue water. After a moment his arm and the soaking wet sleeve of his SeeD uniform emerged from the fountain with her little black shoe in his hand. After draining the shoe and trying as best he could to flick water out of it, he handed it back to her. She quickly placed it on the ground and stepped into the sopping wet shoe, pretending that everything was fine and trying not to draw attention to the fact that it was not.

"Squall, you got your nice uniform all wet because of me..."

"It's okay... I don't mind. This is fine. Whatever," Squall stated, pretending that the last two minutes hadn't happened. "I was just on my way to grab a tray of food and head back up to my meeting with Cid."

"He sure keeps you busy," Rinoa stated matter-of-factly.

"I like to keep busy, less time to think," Squall replied while his sleeve dripped onto the marble floor.

"Squall I'm glad I, um... RAN into you, ha ha," Rinoa laughed uncomfortably. "I was wondering if I could use the TV in your apartment? I want use it to watch a movie."

"Anything wrong with your laptop?," Squall asked. "I could get it fixed for you."

"No, nothing wrong. I just thought it would be more comfortable in your apartment," Rinoa smiled. "Because the TV screen is so much bigger," she quickly added.

"Fine, I won't be back in my room until 8pm tonight. My room should be free until then." Squall said directly.

Squall gave Rinoa his key card, which wasn't strictly according to protocol. "Just make sure when you leave, to bring the key card back to me," Squall said. "Otherwise I will be locked out of my room."

Rinoa quickly said goodbye to Squall and practically started skipping away. She was happy at her good fortune of running into Squall. Over lunch and throughout the morning she'd been trying to plan ways to get her relationship with Squall to improve. She was taking a no pressure laid back approach to avoid scaring him away.

Squall turned back and headed into the cafeteria, hearing the squishing sound of Rinoa's shoe on the Balamb Garden tile fading off into the distance.

Squall quickly grabbed lunch and made his way back towards his office, not even glancing towards the faces of his friends sitting and having lunch. Selphie gave Squall a wave which he just noticed out of the corner of his eye. Not having time to chat, Squall briskly tilted his head towards Selphie to acknowledge her wave, and walked out of the cafeteria with his lunch while sighing. He then headed back upstairs towards his office.

The job as commander had not let up after the defeat of Ultimecia. Over the past few months, if anything, it had picked up. Many different places had requested the services of SeeDs because there was now a power vacuum in the absence of the sorceress threat. Now instead of one large problem, there were many small localized problems. Countries were trying to grab as much power and land that they could, causing the SeeDs to be in high demand.

Being commander did keep him close to the Garden and what he called home most of the time, but he was beginning to wonder if this was a blessing or a curse. One thing it definitely had done to him was to trap him into thinking. Most of his non-work related thoughts drifted to Rinoa. His mind kept playing over the memory of his kiss with her on the Garden balcony during the celebration after Ultimecia's defeat. He'd felt really happy and free that night, but the next day he'd gone back to his normal closed off self. Some of it was due to champagne, but some of it was his growing attachment to Rinoa.

Relationships were confusing and overwhelming for him. Their relationship had not progressed in the past month for a number of reasons. Firstly, he was new at not being a complete loner. Secondly he was never around. Squall was the commander and that meant he had increasing responsibility for running Garden. Increasing responsibility meant more time away from others and this included Rinoa.

They had been together a little bit, and he did spend as much time as possible with her that he could. But as much time as possible for Commander Squall Leonhart, was barely any time at all. He wondered what she thought about the whole situation between them. Was that why she was acting differently lately?

He filed away the increasingly odd behavior of Rinoa into the back of his mind and deemed that as soon as he was able that he would talk to Quistis and Selphie about it. Maybe they had noticed Rinoa acting different in their presence. She had to be watched closely now that she was a sorceress. Sorceresses had a bad track record of changing for the worse.

He should also approach the subject with the headmaster Cid. He knew that he was Rinoa's Knight, but he really didn't know what that meant for their relationship. Actually, he wasn't sure what that meant at all. Was it just a title? Was there something magic about it? Was that how he was able to reach Rinoa's mind in space? Could he do that again any time? Did they just imagine it all? Was he now forced to fall in love with Rinoa? Was it a romantic link? Was it only his duty to protect her and nothing more? He remembered back to the time when she said 'You will like me, You will like me.' Was this the feeling that he had when she was around. Maybe she had cast a spell on him.

 _"Maybe I should visit Seifer and ask him about it?,"_ Squall thought. He almost shuddered at the thought of talking to Seifer, especially about his feelings. But he would be the best person, aside from Edea and Cid to know about the Sorceress and Knight bond.

In all of his meetings, Cid had yet to broach the subject with Squall. Squall resolved to bring it up to Cid the first chance he got. He needed time to sort out these feelings to see if they were even his own.

All Squall knew was that he was thinking of Rinoa as he walked into his office and ate his lunch, awaiting yet again another meeting with Cid, the headmaster.


	4. Chapter 4

As soon as Rinoa went back to her room she put her newly formed plan into action. She would get some food, find a movie that Squall would like, and then wait around for him to come back from his office. It would be like a spontaneous date.

Selphie had mentioned that the Orphanage Gang had liked cookies and popcorn. The cookies might be too difficult to prepare on such short notice, but Rinoa had microwave popcorn that she kept in her room when she needed a snack.

_First things first Rinoa, you need to secure a movie. Secondly, make sure that you have the popcorn. Thirdly, you need to set everything up and make sure it looks like you were just beginning to watch the movie when Squall comes in. It's like an ambush date except Squall won't even know it's a date. No pressure!_

_Maybe I'm over thinking this and planning excessively. I've been hanging around Squall way too much... Wait, no I haven't! That's what all this planning is for._

Rinoa made her way back to the Balamb library. At the front desk was a cadet with dark brown hair braided back. It was a familiar face that she had no name to go with. She went over and stopped directly in front of the library girl.

"Yes, may I help you?" the library girl said in an indoor voice.

"I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Rinoa, what's your name?"

"Hi Rinoa, my name is Ami. You're Zell's friend, right?"

"That's right, nice to meet you! I need some help today. Could you tell me where the movies are? I want to browse."

Ami stepped around the front desk and showed Rinoa the section of the Balamb library that had movies. Rinoa padded across the green carpet until she wound up in front of the shelf with them. Zell's collection of martial arts movies would rival the small collection that lay before her. Tilting her head to the side, she started skimming titles that caught her eye."

_Basic Battle Tactics. Guardian Forces and You. How to Draw: Paramagic Volume 1. The Sorceress' Knight. Celebrity Triple Triad Tournament. The Sorceress Wars: A History. Weapons: Which One is Right for You? The Archaeology of Ancient Centra. Unsolved Mysteries: Esthar._

_I would have thought they'd have more fun movies, or at least more movies in general, but I guess this is a military school library. Most things are non-fiction documentaries or training videos. I think I heard Quistis mentioning something about The Sorceress Wars documentary. Squall would probably find military history to be interesting, and it would pertain to us because I'm a sorceress now. It wouldn't hurt to learn more about it._

Rinoa reached out and snatched the two titles that were about sorceresses. She took The Sorceress Wars documentary and the Sorceress' Knight movie from the shelf and starting making her way back to the front desk when she got an additional idea.

_I should grab a few books about the Sorceress Wars too, and pretend like I'm studying up on the subject of sorceresses and knights. Actually, I probably shouldn't be PRETENDING to study it._

Rinoa heard beeping as she went over to the front desk. Ami was busy scanning books and placing them in order on a cart. She looked up and smiled as Rinoa approached.

"Ami, could you help me find some good books about the Sorceress Wars?" Rinoa asked.

"Okay Rinoa, I know where that section is. If it's okay with you, I'll just go grab a few." Ami popped up from her seat and dashed over to the book stacks eagerly wanting to help Rinoa. It had been a slow afternoon and she was excited to help somebody. Especially one of Zell's friends.

A short time later she was back at the desk showing Rinoa a selection of books. Rinoa happily grabbed a few that seemed to be the most helpful and handed them over to Ami to be checked out.

"Thanks so much for your help Ami!" Rinoa said as she was exiting the Balamb library.

_Okay, that takes care of that part of my plan. Now I just have to get some food, and set up at Squall's apartment and wait for him to come back from work._

* * *

Squall's apartment was spacious compared to Rinoa's room. It made sense that he would have a nice place to stay as he was the commander. The sheer size of the space seemed less luxurious and more empty than she would have thought. It felt as if he'd just moved his few possessions from his dorm room right into this apartment. He hadn't filled it up with much of anything. The furnishings were extremely stark.

The only thing that seemed like Squall had picked it out to his own tastes was a black leather couch. Across from the couch sat a large screen TV and there was a utilitarian metal desk in the corner of the living room with a laptop on it. Near the kitchen sat a small table for eating.

 _He probably doesn't have the time or will to make the place homey._ _At least he has a nice TV. I bet he just watches world news on it though. Typical Squall, all business._

Rinoa had previously been to Squall's apartment on the rare occasions that he had some free time and invited Rinoa over, but this was the only time she'd been there alone. She would have been tempted to snoop around if she thought she might find anything interesting, but she knew she'd only find SeeD issued amenities. Squall wasn't very materialistic. Plus snooping would be rude. She'd be angry if he ever did that to her. She cringed inwardly at the thought of Squall seeing her messy room. Well, he'd seen it messy before, but that was AFTER she'd at least tidied it up a bit, then it was acceptably messy, absolutely no unmentionables in sight.

Although there weren't many personalized items in his apartment, it was clear that Squall Leonhart lived there. Nothing was dirty, dusty, or out of place. The few papers on the desk were in neatly arranged stacks, and the open door leading to Squall's bedroom showed a tidily made bed. Even the bathroom towels were folded crisply on the towel racks. It was like Squall had his own personal maid service, but he didn't.

Rinoa had been sitting on Squall's couch for what seemed like forever, in actuality it had only been two hours. She figured he'd be late, but it was so hard to wait when she didn't know when he'd be arriving. She tried to make herself comfortable on his oversized black leather couch, but it wasn't very soft, and there weren't even any pillows. The couch hadn't been broken in, and Rinoa always felt herself either sliding off the end or having her bare arms stick to the new leather.

She sat up straighter and tried to stretch out her tired arms and back. After noticing the time, she paused the lengthy documentary and got up off the couch. She headed to his small kitchen to start making some popcorn in the microwave on the kitchen counter.

_I want to wait to make food until Squall gets here, but I'm sooooo hungry. Or maybe I'm just bored._

She opened the door to the microwave and placed the popcorn bag inside and shut the door. Soon she could hear the sound of popping, and the delicious aroma of hot buttered popcorn started to fill the air. In between loud pops, she thought she heard a thump. The humming microwave and popping kernels were loud, so she jumped when the thump repeated itself louder. That definitely hadn't been her imagination that time. Thump! Thump! Thump! She moved away from the microwave to listen to the thumping coming from behind the door.

"Rinoa, are you in there?!" Squall's muffled voice could be heard through the door.

Rinoa started towards the door guiltily.

_That's right. I have his key card!_

"I'm coming," Rinoa chirped, trying to suppress a sheepish smile.

Rinoa fumbled with the lock for a few moments before she was able to open the door and let a tired Squall into his apartment. He huffed out his breath, and stood there looking exasperated.

"After waiting in my office for you to come, I went looking for you. I went everywhere. I thought you were going to bring back my key card. I didn't think you'd still be here at this time."

_Oh no, in my rush to surprise him, I forgot to call and tell him that I was still in his apartment._

"Well, I'm glad I found you. The next stop would have been to send some SeeDs to track the sorceress down. They are at my command, and they've been trained for situations like this." Squall said with a deadpan expression on his face while putting his hands on his hips and looking down at her face.

Rinoa jumped a little bit as he said that, and she grabbed onto the ends of her hair nervously.

"Sorry, Squall it took me longer than I thought to find everything, and by the time I came here I thought you would just come home before checking everywhere for me."

"Well, I didn't go looking for you everywhere. Just every place on the way here. Namely the library, and your room. So don't worry about it." He dropped his hands to his sides.

Squall had gone over to the couch and sat down. Somehow it seemed to conform to his heavy body, and he seemed to relax into it. His momentum from the day had come to a standstill, and his body quickly became immobile. He was tired and it showed.

Rinoa grabbed the popcorn from the microwave, walked over to the couch and sat down next to him. She wanted to flop down on the couch next to him and snuggle her face into his shoulder like an overexcited puppy, but she didn't want to force her presence on him and make an awkward situation. She tried to be content sitting on the same couch with him, albeit, an uncomfortable couch. She wrapped her arms around her legs trying to get comfy.

Squall stared at the paused TV screen for a minute. On the screen was the image of a man in a suit. At the bottom of the screen in big letters said Professor of History - Galbadian University - Glenn Greenfield.

This seemed out of place, but it had peaked Squall's interest. He was forced to ask Rinoa, who was patiently waiting, "what are you watching?"

"Something called The Sorceress Wars: A History." As if this was what she was waiting for, Rinoa grabbed the remote that was beside her and hit the play button. She reached over and grabbed some popcorn and started eating without offering any to Squall, making sure that the popcorn bag was out of his reach.

Glenn Greenfield continued in the middle of a thought "...that, in a nutshell is how it is believed that the Sorceress War began."

Rinoa and Squall continued to watch in silence as the documentary unfolded before them. Squall must have been familiar with some of the material, but the majority of it was new to Rinoa. Seeing all the destruction caused by sorceresses and knights frightened her. History was full of terrible examples of power being abused to hurt others. She was starting to be surprised that Squall wasn't afraid of her. She was starting to be afraid of herself.

 _Is this my fate?_ Rinoa thought

Rinoa was taking turns nervously nibbling her fingernails and apprehensively nibbling at popcorn. She knew Squall must be hungry, but she wanted him to come to her first. He didn't even ask for her to share her snack with him. He was so stubborn. While readjusting herself on the couch she brushed up against him trying to get the popcorn smell in his face. She continued to eat and held her hand full of popcorn close to him while watching the TV. After a while of doing this he snatched some out of her hand and began eating. She tried to contain her excitement. She grabbed some more popcorn and held it closer, he leaned forward and ate it out of her hand while focused on the documentary.

_Oh look! Finally he took some! He's literally eating out my hand now! I wasn't expecting that! Wow! This is working! Thanks pet book!_

Although she desperately wanted to be more bold she knew that she should stick to her plan of taking it slow and letting him get comfortable with her. She wanted him to come to her on his own terms eventually. Moving too fast might scare him away.

After an hour or two the credits rolled before Squall got up from the couch and headed to the bathroom. Rinoa smiled to herself and couldn't remember when she'd had as much fun watching a boring historical military documentary before. While waiting for Squall to come back she looked over some of her library books.

After a few minutes Squall returned with a damp face and looking a little bit refreshed. He sat down next to Rinoa.

"Rinoa, how'd you pick the movie?"

"Quistis recommended it a while ago. She said it was extremely well done."

"You're taking movie recommendations from Quistis now?" Squall asked with his eyebrows raised.

This was yet another recent example of Rinoa acting strangely, and it was starting to worry him.

"What's wrong with Quistis?" Rinoa asked.

 _You two are polar opposites. Your preferences are completely different. I can't believe you two even get along at all._ _The only thing you two have in common is an interest in me_ , Squall inwardly winced at some of the many awkward student interactions he'd had with Instructor Trepe.

"Nothing's wrong with Quistis," Squall stated while rubbing his forehead and willing his uncomfortable memories to subside.

"Well, I thought that I should learn some more about sorceresses. Squall, what do you know about sorceresses? I don't know much about them. What does Garden teach?" Rinoa asked earnestly. She shifted her body towards him, awaiting his answer.

 _They destroy the world, and that it's my job as a SeeD to kill them,_ he immediately thought.

"I don't know much about sorceresses Rinoa. I guess it's time that I change that..."

He leaned closer to her and she instinctively began leaning closer to him. It was late and the only light in the dimly lit apartment was coming from the blank TV screen, so she couldn't see the look on his face. He reached his arm around her while she closed her eyes. A brief moment passed, and her eyes shot open as she heard a book opening and a light being switched on. Squall had just been leaning around her to get the sorceress book from where it had been resting next to her on the couch. Rinoa blushed and hoped Squall hadn't noticed her getting ready for a possible kiss that clearly was NOT going to happen.

"Do you mind if I borrow some of these books from you? I really should learn more about this." He was already pouring over the information in the text.

"Yea Squall, that's fine. Everything's fine."

She rubbed her thighs before getting up to leave. Squall looked up at her with his eyes wide. He was searching her face trying to gauge her mood.

"I'm tired, I'm going to get back to my room now. Now don't stay up too late learning about sorceress. You'll tire yourself out."

She reached out to grab some of the materials on sorceresses when she knocked the other movie off the couch onto the floor. When she went to pick it up her eyes settled on the back cover of the Sorceress' Knight movie. She thought her eyes were playing tricks on her.

"Squall, is that your DAD!?" She pointed in amazement at the movie.

Squall rubbed the back of his neck and rolled his eyes as he said, "yes, that's Laguna. He briefly worked in film to make some money when he was younger. I could tell you about it."

 _But I won't,_ Squall thought.

"Oh, please Squall tell me more! Laguna's life is so interesting."

"I'm really tired Rinoa." He started to fake a yawn. Rinoa felt that this was her cue to leave. She was surprised she even got to spend this much time with Squall, and she felt that she shouldn't press her luck further. She started towards his door suppressing the urge to be even remotely affectionate.

"Goodnight, Squall. Thanks for letting me watch the documentary on your nice TV."

"It was informative." Squall stated. He was surprised she was leaving right away without a fuss, somewhat disappointed too. He definitely needed his rest, but it was nice know he was wanted.

Rinoa lingered for a few seconds by Squall's open doorway, hoping that he would say something like, 'see you tomorrow' or 'I have a few spare seconds over the weekend and was hoping you would join me for dinner' or 'how about a kiss goodnight.' That last one would be more likely in her dreams she thought wistfully. After a few awkward moments of silence, while resisting the urge to hug Squall tightly, Rinoa said goodbye and turned slowly and left down the corridor. Her mind was buzzing with everything that had been happening recently. She needed to unwind.

Rinoa headed straight back to her room. It wasn't her first choice, and she wished she had an outlet to express her feelings so she could calm down for bed. She knew that if she went into bed and tried to sleep right away she wouldn't be able to. Instead she played in her dorm with Angelo contemplating all the events of the past few days. She fondly remembered hanging out with Selphie and sharing pizza and popcorn with Squall. She hadn't been this happy in a long time. All this happiness came with a price however as Rinoa couldn't fall asleep for awhile.

* * *

After Rinoa left, Squall stood staring at the closed door with his eyebrows furrowed in thought. Rinoa had always been bewildering to him, but she was acting very different lately. It left him wanting to know more. He was starting to worry. She was acting in ways that he never expected. He was going to have to take action on this soon.

As he prepared for sleep he couldn't help but think about Rinoa and their increasingly complex relationship. His worrying was not conducive to sleep. Squall paced around his empty apartment for a minute before getting ready for bed. One thing that Garden had taught him was to approach problems logically. He went over his ever evolving relationship in his mind. He really didn't know much about the sorceress-knight bond. This was a problem he could tackle by studying the subject and asking Cid about what he knew. Feeling better by having made a plan, he prepared his mind for bed by emptying his thoughts. Worrying tonight would do no good. It was with this that he laid down, clearing his mind and falling into slumber.

* * *

After Rinoa had washed her face, brushed her teeth, and threw on her pajamas, she read for awhile to calm her mind and try to get sleepy. Once or twice during this process she stifled a yawn. She looked over at the clock which read well past 1:00 am in the morning and decided to try and get some sleep.

Rinoa pulled back the pink comforter to her bed and slid between the soft sheets. Laying her head back on the pillow, she smiled to herself at how well her plan seemed to be progressing. Angelo jumped unto the bed and curled up by her feet, and Rinoa adjusted herself to get comfortable. While her body was beginning to relax, her mind was still racing. She was excited and that made her restless. She lay there in a state between drifting off to sleep and being fully awake. It was a long time after Angelo fell asleep that Rinoa's mind quieted enough for her to fall asleep as well.

* * *

Lightning flashed, thunder rumbled, and cold rain thudded heavily against the window panes. Rinoa was in a darkened house in Timber as she watched the storm outside. A feeling of contentment washed over her as she was inside the warm and cozy house. The storm raged on while she heard a strange hissing from the field outside. A sense of urgency came over her as she opened the door and stumbled out into the heavy rain.

She was running towards the sound of hissing while rain pelted her face and soaked her clothes. Her boots slid in the mud and she fell down into a dingy puddle of rainwater. She got up and started to run again. It strangely felt like she was running in place, like she was hardly connected to the ground at all. No matter how hard she tried, she got no further away from the house.

Eventually, amidst the drenching rain, an island containing a patch of grass and yellow flowers appeared surrounded by a sea of darkness. In the center of the island, lay a wet black furry object, huddled in the tall grass. Rinoa approached, it was a stray cat. She felt her heart melt when she saw how cold and alone he was. Her hand reached out to pick him up when the cat's claws swiped her hand. After recoiling, she immediately swooped the wet cat into her arms and marched back towards her house.

Once inside she toweled off the cat and held him in her arms to warm him up. The cat protested weakly for a time in her arms, then eventually he gave in to her affections. Rinoa became extremely happy as the cat curled up in her lap to purr himself to sleep. Some indeterminate time later the cat jumped from Rinoa's arms and mewed. Rinoa instinctively knew the cat needed milk. She poured some milk in a bowl and fed him. The cat purred loudly as it lapped up the milk. Rinoa bent down and petted him. She continued to pet the black cat contently as the scene around her started to change.

Rinoa was in a dark place when suddenly she was blinded by a bright spotlight. Her hand flew up to her face to shield her eyes in an attempt to take in her surroundings. Looking down at herself, she noticed that she was wearing skintight black pants and a garish red suit top with long coattails. She reached up to her head and felt a top hat.

While she was still figuring out what was happening, she noticed that she was trapped in a metal cage about the size of her bedroom with a lion. The massive lion towered over Rinoa. Her eyes locked with the large golden eyes of the lion, then he shook out his brown mane. Now that her eyes had adjusted to the room, Rinoa noticed a wooden stool with a black leather whip on top of it. Outside the cage thousands of people stared at her, awaiting her next move. She doubted herself and her ability to control the lion, but her adrenaline and fight response overcame her fright, and she managed to reach for the whip and the stool. Quickly picking up the wooden stool and whip, she approached the lion. Light glinted off the lion's teeth as he roared and raised a heavy paw towards her. For a brief period of time she was able to control the lion with the wooden stool, but after a while she became tired and dropped everything, falling to the ground in a faint as the lion started to pounce.

Rinoa bolted upright in bed grabbing her chest, gasping with sweat clinging to her skin. Angelo was quickly awoken by Rinoa's sudden movement and gave her a questioning look.

_Oh, it was just a dream! It felt so real!_

She turned to look at her clock and it was only 4:30 in the morning. A little was light streaming in from the outdoor lights of Balamb Garden, but the lightening sky that signals morning had yet to make an appearance. The vivid dreams have rattled her so much that she knows she won't be able to get back to sleep. Angelo notices her agitation and snuggles closer to her providing some comfort. After petting Angelo's furry head for a few minutes, the dog starts to whimper.

"Do you want to go for a walk now Angelo? Walk? Walk?"

_That'll be great to clear my head._

Angelo jumped from the bed excitedly and started to pace around the room. Rinoa swung her feet over the edge of her bed and threw on a hooded sweat shirt over her pajamas. She grabbed her key card and slipped on a pair of sneakers, eager to get outside into the cool darkness.

* * *

Squall thrashed in his bed before sitting up with a grunt. He grabbed his forehead and pushed his sweaty bangs out of his eyes.

_WHAT WAS THAT?_

_That's a different sort of nightmare altogether. I don't think I've ever dreamt I was an animal before, and twice in one night. Why would I ever want to attack Rinoa like that? Everything seemed more real than a normal dream._

He gnashed his teeth together and clenched his fists at the thought of his fangs biting into Rinoa. His hand grabbed at his Griever pendant and looked at the silvery glint of a lion's form staring back at him in the dim light of the very early morning.

 _If this keeps happening, maybe I should tell somebody... But it'll probably never happen again_ , he tried to reassure himself.

Squall flung his sheets back and hung his legs over the side of his bed. Feeling jittery from the disturbing dream, he decided that a good workout would help clear his nervousness. He walked over to his closet and pulled on some black exercise pants and a white t-shirt before lacing up his running shoes. After he splashed some cool water on his face, he cupped his hand under the flow of water and took a few deep sips before continuing outside for a run.

* * *

It was still dark outside, and Garden was completely still and quiet. Squall was walking along the sidewalk that connects the dorms to the main hub of Garden. He lightly stretched his arms and legs before getting ready to jog. While leaning forward to get some momentum going, he heard a bit of movement from behind. He started to turn as he felt damp paws press into his back.

_Angelo!? How'd you get out?_

His hand reached for Angelo's collar as the dog pushed his nose into his legs.

 _Nothing like the smell of a damp dog in the morning to get yourself fully awake_ , he thought to himself crossly. _Better get you back to your owner._

While squinting his eyes towards Garden he saw Rinoa's form come into view. She was panting from running after Angelo. She grabbed her thighs with her head bent down towards the ground, he heard her take a few deep breaths. When her head lifted back up, she was clearly surprised to see Squall holding Angelo's collar.

"Squall? What are you doing out now?" she asked while closing the distance between them.

"I was having trouble sleeping, so I figured I might as well get up extra early and do some cardio exercises," Squall replied.

"Um, I woke up early, and Angelo wanted to go out. Nature called, I guess. Right Angelo?" The dog looked upwards and wagged his tail happily.

After his strange dream Squall was pleased to see that the real Rinoa was unharmed and in one piece. Squall looked Rinoa up and down to make sure that she was really okay.

"I don't have to start jogging right now, would you like to walk a bit? I could accompany you and Angelo for awhile." Squall stated while letting go of Angelo's collar.

"Sure, let's walk for a bit." She looked away from him while a big smile lit up her face. They continued to walk outside for a bit. Both were enjoying the cool breeze of the morning.

"Why couldn't you sleep Squall?" she eventually ventured to ask when the silence became awkward for her.

He paused for a long time before he gave his answer.

"I've had a lot on my mind recently, and I think that it was causing me to have stressful dreams. I was restless." Squall purposely left out the nature of the dreams.

 _Too weird and hard to explain_. _I was a cat Rinoa, and I wanted to pounce on you._

"Oh Squall! About dreams, I had a few odd ones tonight as well. I dreamt I was wearing these super skintight black pants and..."

 _Sounds good so far_ , Squall thought to himself while Rinoa continued with her description.

"I was trapped in a cage with a big lion, and I only had a whip and a wooden stool to protect myself from him. It was kinda exciting, but mostly really scary. And before that I dreamt I found this sweet little black cat that had gotten lost outside in a storm."

The blood drained from Squall's face as he heard this. It was still dark outside and Rinoa was too busy explaining her dream to notice.

_That sounds like the same nightmares I had except I was the cat and the lion. What is going on?_

Rinoa had been giving additional details but Squall wasn't paying attention. He was lost in thought too much.

"Well anyways, I feel so silly that it rattled me so much. I feel better just having told them to you. I guess it was stupid to get so scared over a dream." Rinoa said tailing off at the end.

"No. It wasn't stupid," Squall said slowly. He resolved not to let her get further upset by the incident. He was upset enough for the both of them.

 _This is just one more example of weird things that have been happening lately to Rinoa_ , he thought worriedly.

While they had been talking the sky had slightly started to lighten at the coming of the dawn. Black outlines of trees and shrubs where silhouetted against the sky. Birds began to chirp and fly overhead and the chill that was in the air was subsiding.

"Anyways, I'm feeling better now. I think I'm going to go back inside now and sleep for a few more hours. Do you want to come back inside too?" Rinoa very much hoped that he would say yes and walk her back to her room.

Squall looked down at the ground and shook his head.

"No. I'm going to jog, and then I have to be up early anyways. Just go back inside and get some rest." He waved to her lightly while starting to jog away. His forehead wrinkled in worry as his running shoes started to pound the pavement beneath his feet.

_Sweet dreams this time... hopefully... I really need to talk with Cid soon about these odd occurrences with Rinoa..._

Squall jogged off into the distance while his worries only increased.


	5. Chapter 5

Squall Leonhart liked being in control. He needed control to function. He didn't love control as much as he feared its opposite. He hated being at the mercy of others or of the world in general. The world was a merciless place. His childhood memories made him cringe. Being so small, unwanted, needy, and completely helpless was terrifying for him. The circumstances of his childhood were out of his hands, and to a lesser extent, the circumstances of his adult life were up in the air too now, but he could be prepared. Being strong and in control of himself in addition to being prepared was the best he could do. 'Always be prepared,' that's a good motto. He wondered if anybody else used that too.

Anyways, if he was a little uptight and obsessive compulsive, well that was a small price to pay for not being a helpless kid again. If he showed any bit of outward weakness, he felt that he'd lose control of everything again and be back at square one. That wasn't the most mentally healthy attitude, but nobody who was raised by Garden and Cid Kramer was mentally healthy in the least. Squall actually was a success story, and that's why he was Balamb Garden's Commander and current poster boy.

Squall sat at his desk and looked around his office. He took a large calming breath and brushed his brown bangs out of the way of his eyes. His hands absentmindedly starting arranging pens and paperwork neatly while he tried to calm and focus himself. Soon everything on his desk was situated in clean right angles. Once he saw that everything on his desk was arranged in the way he liked, he felt a brief bit of calm come over himself. He had a lot of things on his mind recently, and he was trying to keep it together.

Over the last few days Squall had been increasingly alarmed by Rinoa's recent strange behavior. Although he was still new to social interactions, her actions were out of the ordinary enough that even he was able to notice. It seemed likely that it had to do with her new sorceress powers. He should learn more. Being a knight was like a ongoing mission. He needed to prepare.

It was time to bring Cid in on this, but not necessarily all the way in. He didn't want Cid to know all his worries and fears about Rinoa. He didn't want Cid to invade Rinoa's privacy. It wasn't Cid's business to know about Rinoa's personal details, but he needed his help to gain a better understanding about sorceresses and knights. He resolved to ask Cid after their next meeting which was scheduled tomorrow.

In the meantime he resolved to professionally and discreetly ask if Quistis or Selphie had noticed anything odd about Rinoa. He knew that they spent a lot more time during the day around each other. They often ate meals together. Sometimes they played games together as well. They probably did some kind of girls bonding stuff, he wasn't sure, but they seemed to be the closest people to her, other than himself.

Since he was the Commander, and it was during regular business hours, it was not hard to get them into his office for questioning. They'd been there many times before when he'd asked their opinions on matters of Garden, so it wouldn't seem strange to them. He'd sent a messenger to bring Selphie and Quistis to his office within the hour. He figured that they'd arrive soon. It wasn't long before he heard a knock on his door.

"Come in," Squall replied with his voice raised to carry through the thick wooden door.

Quistis's hand slowly started to open the door when Selphie forcefully shoved the it open, causing it to slam into the door stop.

"Selphie Tilmitt reporting as requested!" Selphie saluted while entering with Quistis following her lead, although in a much more subdued manner.

"Could you please close the door and then have a seat," Squall requested while grabbing at his forehead. "This meeting is confidential."

"Oh yea, the door," Selphie said.

Even though Quistis was much closer to the door, Selphie rushed over and exuberantly slammed the door shut making Quistis and Squall wince. Squall immediately put his hands over his desk to ensure that the reverberations from the door hadn't disturbed its order.

"I wanted to talk to you Squall," Selphie chirped before Squall could even speak. "I believe that another Garden social event is coming up next month. Sign here and here."

"Selphie, what am I signing?" Squall asked.

"The requisition forms to pay for the catering and music for the event, silly," Squall ran his hand through his hair and picked up his pen and signed his name before continuing with the meeting's purpose.

"The reason I called you both here today is that I am concerned about Rinoa. I have felt that she is acting strangely around me and I wanted to know if you have noticed anything odd about her."

"What do you mean by strange?" Quistis asked.

 _What do you think I mean, Quistis?_ Squall thought irritably.

"I just wanted to know how she's adjusting to life at Garden." Squall didn't want to get into the details.

"I think she might be psychic. We should test her!" Selphie said. "The other day I asked her to guess which Triple Triad card I was holding, and she guessed Cactuar. And she WAS RIGHT!"

"Okay Selphie thanks." Squall turned his head from Selphie to Quistis and awaited a more reasonable reply.

"Squall, I think Rinoa is dealing with the normal pressures of Garden. Most cadets and some SeeDs are wary if not outright afraid of her. But I think she is adjusting well, and I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary. We see her at mealtimes and during some of the downtimes. Zell, Irvine, myself, and Selphie usually invite Rinoa to activities that we feel she would like. I make it a priority to check in on her often. It's important to make sure she's doing okay because we don't want her to become upset."

_Of course we wouldn't want the sorceress to become upset._

Squall was annoyed by Quistis's practical assessment of the situation with emphasis on the impact it would have on Garden and not on Rinoa's personal feelings.

"We'll make sure to look out for Rinoa!" Selphie smiled eagerly at the thought of hanging out with Rinoa more while she bounced on her heels. "Maybe I should take her out shopping or do something fun. Don't worry about it Squall!"

_All I do is worry._

"Good." Squall replied, wishing something in all this would start making any sort of sense to him.

He hated when things didn't make complete sense. Although his relationship with Rinoa was in that category. Their relationship was stirring up a lot of feelings that he'd been spending his whole life trying to ignore.

His mind wandered while they spoke about various Garden matters, but after discussing business for a few more minutes, Squall dismissed them to return to their duties.

_That wasn't particularly helpful. I still don't know what is going on with Rinoa. I guess I'm going have to keep digging until I get an answer. I want to make sure she's okay._

Squall started to busy himself with tedious office work while thinking ahead to the next day. He definitely would ask Cid about sorceresses and knights.

_Maybe I'll get some answers tomorrow._

* * *

Tomorrow came sooner than Squall would have liked. The weather outside was in direct contrast to Squall's mood. The sun shone brightly and it was pleasantly warm and breezy. Typical balmy Balamb weather, but Squall felt stormy, as usual. He had spent the better part of last night convincing himself that he needed to talk to Cid even if he didn't want to.

He decided it didn't matter what he wanted because he absolutely NEEDED to learn more about the subject. For the time being he decided to leave Rinoa completely out of it. Cid really hadn't done the best job with his own wife, Edea, and Squall didn't want to place Rinoa solely in his incapable hands. He didn't want Cid knowing all his concerns about her. Actually he didn't want Rinoa knowing all his concerns about her either, at least not yet.

He would have felt better if he could have woken up and gone directly to talk to Cid, but once again it was a day filled with meetings. Not a day went by where he didn't have some sort of boring meeting. Whether it be with Cid about the state of Garden, or a scheduled meeting with the instructors, prospective clients, incoming students, or dignitaries that wanted to establish a good relationship with Garden. Countless pointless meetings! As the work day was finally drawing to a close, he was in Cid's office giving him a monthly report on the financial state of Garden.

"So looking at the summary in front of you Cid, last month we took in nearly two million Gil, and after operating expenses, we earned five hundred thousand Gil. The projected net income for next month is six hundred thousand. Xu believes we may need to think about increasing our training and marketing," Squall said in conclusion.

Cid sat back in his office chair and contemplated what Squall had spent the better part of a half an hour explaining to Cid.

"Sure, fine Squall. Do what you think is right," Cid said.

This was a typical response from Cid. He was the Headmaster and Squall was the Commander, yet he pretty much took all of Squall's or Xu's or anyone's opinion and said 'fine.'

"Anything else, or are we finished?" Cid asked.

Squall tried to not show his displeasure at Cid's attitude, but he clenched his fists tightly before beginning to broach the subject that had been laying heavily in his mind.

"On an unrelated topic, I would like to know more about the sorceress-knight bond, Sir," Squall said.

"Oh, I've been waiting for you to ask me when you were ready." He clapped his hands together. "Excellent. I think you should speak to Seifer first. Not including myself, he'd be the only other person with experience." Cid suggested.

"Wonderful idea Sir," Squall replied.

_Terrible idea Cid._

"It will take a few days or so to track Seifer down. I will let you know when we gain contact and a time that he can meet us. I take it that you want Rinoa to come and learn as well?"

Cid leaned towards Squall with a big fatherly smile on his face.

"Sir, I would like to learn more myself, and then I can share with Rinoa. She's been stressed for obvious reasons. I would like to keep it a secret from her if I can for now. Also, I'm not sure if she's ready to see Seifer again."

Cid leaned back into his seat while looking up at the ceiling for a moment to think.

"Yes, that's understandable. That's fine. How about you can tell her that you're going on a mission," Cid replied.

Squall gave a brief nod in agreement with Cid's plan.

"Thank you, Sir. Anything else you need from me?" Squall said politely.

"No, Squall that is all." Cid finished while stretching back in his creaky office chair and thumping his fingers on his desk absent-mindedly.

With that dismissal Squall got up and left. He was finished with his meetings for the day, but now he had to go back to his office to complete some paperwork for some much needed repairs to the Training Center. Due to some neglect, the locking mechanism on the Training Center door no longer worked 100 percent of the time, and just last week Squall had gotten a call about some Grats that had escaped and were wandering down the corridor close to the junior cadet classrooms. Their swaying leafy green arms weren't even that much of a threat to a junior classman.

_Kids do hate vegetables though._

It was an unwelcome disruption. Well, it was an unwelcome disruption for the instructors, but the children and the Commander thought differently. Squall still thought back to last week fondly. Sure they were only Grats, but it was the most action he had seen in a while.

 _Too bad a T-Rexaur didn't get out._ _There are so many SeeDs around, nobody would have gotten hurt... probably._

He sighed and finished the requisition form while wishing he didn't have as much tedious responsibility. Eventually he headed back to his room to attempt to get some much needed rest. He hoped that this would not be another night of fitful worrying.

* * *

A week later, at Squall's request to know more about sorceresses and knights, Headmaster Cid and his wife Edea had arranged a secret meeting with Seifer. To keep it a secret, they used the Ragnarok for their meeting place. Squall and the Kramers agreed to leave Garden in the Ragnarok and meet up with Seifer in an undisclosed location. If anybody asked, it was for a mission. The plan wasn't perfect, but it was the best they do on short notice.

Seifer had been keeping a low profile since the defeat of Ultimecia. Most people had begrudgingly accepted that he had been under the sorceress' control. He had been pardoned for his crimes, but that didn't mean people were comfortable having him hang around in public yet. He'd been spending a lot of time fishing with Raijin and Fujin. The Ragnarok had picked him up at the docks near Fisherman's Horizon. He'd been moving from fishing spot to fishing spot for the time being. He may not have been a SeeD, but he was one of their own, and they still kept tabs on his whereabouts.

Even after everything that had happened, Squall still had a certain amount of respect for Seifer. They had a lot of history. Up until very recently, they'd been constantly together, even if they didn't want to be, as they were prone to fighting. Their constant clashes had improved Squall's gunblade skills and resolve, and he respected him for that. Seifer's leadership had gotten Squall and Zell past their SeeD exams. It wasn't all bad.

Squall actually liked the guy, well at least he liked him when he wasn't being used as a puppet of an evil time-traveling sorceress. Or cutting up his face during a training session. Or when he was bullying cadets as part of the Disciplinary Committee. Or when he was calling Zell a chickenwuss. Or when he remembered that Rinoa had briefly dated Seifer last summer. Hopefully very, very briefly. So incredibly briefly that they never even...

Well, let's say in spite of EVERYTHING, Squall liked him well enough, or at least as much as he was ever going to. But a little bit of Seifer Almasy went a long way. He could feel his back muscles start to tense up at the thought of being in a room with Cid, Seifer, and Edea for an extended period of time. This was going to be stressful and awkward, but he decided that it needed to be done. Once he decided on something, he just did it no matter what.

Once they were all oddly assembled in cockpit of the Ragnarok, Squall was the first one to speak.

"I wanted to know more about sorceresses and knights. Rinoa has been acting a little strange, and I want to be prepared for everything. What exactly does being a knight even mean? Is it just a title? Is it magic. I want to know. Is it something I can handle?"

Cid looked at him questioningly. His eyes were full of feeling.

"Son, it is more than just a title. I don't think you realize what you've gotten yourself into, but it's too late to think about backing out now."

Seifer started to laugh as he slapped his leg. "Yea man, it's 'till DEATH do us part' for us knights. Ultimecia had me trapped real good. I was totally SCREWED! Oh, thanks by the way for solving that for me!" He gestured a slashing motion across his neck while sticking his tongue out and rolling his eyes.

"Seifer!" yelled Cid while looking worriedly at Edea. She had appeared to have gone paler than normal, if that was even possible, at the mention of Ultimecia's death. Ultimecia may have been evil, but both Edea and Ultimecia were sorceresses, and it was a delicate subject for her.

"Anyways Squall, Seifer does have a point. Unless broken violently by the sorceress, it is a lifetime bond, and it is more than just a title. Have you noticed anything different happening yet... um, between you two?" Cid inquired while peering over his glasses at Squall expectantly.

Squall had been uncomfortable before, but it was nowhere near as uncomfortable as he felt now. He could feel sweat starting to prickle on his skin as Cid, Edea, and Seifer all stared at him. His undershirt started to get drenched and stick to the inside of his fur collared leather bomber jacket. In a flash of panic he wanted to rip it off right away, but he'd feel too exposed. As he watched Seifer's mouth turn upwards into a smug grin at the awkward situation, he had a great desire to punch him right in the face. His silence continued, and all he could hear was the hum of the lights and his own breathing.

_Wipe that smug look of your face Seifer Alm-ASS-y or I'll wipe it off for you._

"No sir," Squall replied tersely while standing at attention.

"Squall, don't hold back. We need to know what is going on if we are going to help you," explained Cid.

More tense silence followed.

"Well, maybe there was this one time. When Rinoa was floating in space after she'd released Adel's seal, I tried to have Ellone connect me with her. Ellone said she wasn't able to do it, but Rinoa said she still heard my voice in her head. Was she imagining it? Was that the knight bond already? I don't know if I'd formally accepted the position at that time, Sir."

"Yes Squall, that does sound beyond what would be considered normal, but since Rinoa had become a sorceress at that point, that is the most likely scenario," said Cid.

Edea stepped forward and tried to smile encouragingly at the commander. "We'd all heard what you'd done for Rinoa after she received sorceress powers from me and went into a coma. Carrying her on your back all the way to Esthar and then taking her into space, was quite a display of devotion. Perhaps that was why you didn't need to verbally accept the position of Rinoa's knight. You were already fulfilling that role by your actions."

_Actions are the only things that matter. Anybody can say anything, that doesn't change reality. I didn't see anybody else doing anything to help her. I had to do something. It was my fault. She was my client, and I allowed all these bad things to happen to her. Now her life is ruined, she's a target, and it's my duty to be there for her. I can't run away from this._

"It's my duty to be there for Rinoa, just tell me what I have to do and I'll do it. I'll do anything for her," Squall stated.

Seifer lazily made a whipping noise with his mouth. "Man Squall, you sound whipped already. You're just lucky you got stuck with Rinoa. She's pretty sweet, and believe me, I know what I'm talking about here..."

Squall's mind recoiled at Seifer's statement.

_They just dated very BRIEFLY... I should ask Rinoa about that... NO, it's too late now. I just have to focus on the present and the future, not the past._

Seifer continued, unaware of Squall's inner reaction. "Just imagine if Quistis received Edea's powers and you were her knight." Seifer shuddered at the thought. "That would have been a nightmare for everybody. Well, Quistis is pretty hot though, and I'm not saying there wouldn't be ANY upsides to that scenario. She does seem pretty into gunbladers."

Seifer's mind started to wander and he trailed off while staring wistfully out of the windows. Several moments of silence were briefly enjoyed by the Ragnarok's inhabitants before Squall spoke up.

"Sir, there also was an additional incident that I should discuss with you." Squall tensed up before giving only the most necessary information of his shared dream experience with Rinoa.

"Incident, what do you mean Squall?" Cid asked while Edea approached looking worried.

"The other night I had troubling dreams, and then later I found out that Rinoa had been the one dreaming them. I didn't want to cause her to worry, so I didn't tell her I was experiencing her dreams."

"Are you sure it was the same dream Squall?" Edea asked. "Maybe it was a coincidence."

"The dreams were very vivid and distinctive and I don't believe it could have been a coincidence." Squall said.

"I don't think I've heard of that before Squall, but she is a sorceress, so more and more strange occurrences are going to be happening," Edea explained.

"Hey Squall, what type of dreams were they? Anything good?" Seifer smirked in amusement while taunting Squall. "Seriously Squall, you can tell me."

Edea tried to get the meeting back to productive territory by speaking up. "Squall, just as sorceress powers differ from woman to woman, the sorceress and knight bond differs from couple to couple. Just be mindful of any changes in either of you. Perhaps you should also study examples from history to know what some of the possibilities are. And come to any of us with questions. And if you are too embarrassed to ask anything in front of Seifer..." she glanced out of the corner of her eye at Seifer while giving him a disapproving look, "you can always come to me in private for a talk. I'll be there for you whenever you need me. Rinoa too." Edea finished by carefully clasping her hands in front of her. She then carefully stepped forward and gave Squall a light pat on his shoulder.

Squall softened visibly. "Thank you Matron," he replied.

"That's right Squall, go cry and cling to Matron's skirt. Just like old times, eh?" Seifer said.

Squall was reaching the limit of his patience and he started to approach the giant, older blond man menacingly.

Seifer realized that he'd been pushing Squall a bit too much for one day, so he decided he'd back off and leave. Well, he'd back off in a minute. Maybe a few more verbal jabs before he went. He was just having too much fun to stop. He'd missed Squall.

"Well, good luck with all THAT Puberty Boy. Enjoy your mystical journey into manhood. Let me know how that all works out for you. I'm gonna go get back to fishing and working on my tan! Send my love to my dear Rinoa for me. She always was my favorite summertime girlfriend." He pursed his lips and made a kissy face at Squall.

As Squall's fist energetically connected with the side of Seifer's smug face, a sudden thought went through his head.

_I missed this guy._

Although Squall had gotten a surprise punch in, Seifer got ready to physically retaliate. Seifer's size was a huge advantage now that they were only using fists.

 _Okay, time to whack that pretty boy in his emotionless mask of a face,_ Seifer thought gleefully. Fishing just wasn't as stimulating as fighting.

Squall drew his fist back to punch him in the face again when he felt Cid pull him away while Edea was doing the same to Seifer.

"Okay boys that's enough!" Edea spoke loudly. "I think Squall's had enough to think about for one day. Seifer, you can go back to fishing, but we agreed that you check in with Garden frequently."

"Yes Matron, thanks for hosting our little reunion. I'm always glad to be of help." Seifer smiled lopsidedly while holding a hand to his quickly bruising face.

_That was even more uncomfortable than expected. Well, I guess punching Seifer relieved some stress. Okay, just calm down and think of Rinoa, I'm doing this for her. I owe her._

_I can't believe I'm looking forward to getting back to my office. My office! Get me out of here!_ He screamed inwardly while placing his gloved hand on his face and sighing.


	6. Chapter 6

Squall paced around his apartment, not knowing what to do with his unexpected stretch of free time. It was the middle of the afternoon. His secret meeting with Cid, Edea, and Seifer had gone much quicker than he thought it would, and he was back at Garden with time to spare. He had expected the meeting to last all day, but instead it just FELT like it had lasted all day. Either way he'd cleared his schedule as a precaution. While riding in the Ragnarok he had completed all the paperwork that he'd brought along, and now he was back with nothing planned until tomorrow morning. This was an unusual turn of events and he did not know what to do.

_Maybe I should see what Rinoa is doing. Instead of asking others to look after her, I can actually do it myself today._

He ran his hand through his hair and then looked down at his fist. He'd punched Seifer hard in the jaw during his meeting, and he was still feeling it.

_I need to practice hand to hand combat more, maybe I should talk to Zell._

He flexed his sore hand while inwardly smiling.

_It was worth it. Fighting with Seifer released a lot of built up tension._

While pacing around he took out his cell phone and started to dial Rinoa's number. He just thought it was going to go to voicemail when a breathless Rinoa answered.

"Hello? Squall?"

Bright laughter and the sound of seagulls squawking could be heard in the background.

"Hello Rinoa... I was wondering if you'd like to come over and have dinner with me later tonight? I have a bit of free time, and I haven't seen you much lately." He waited awkwardly for a response.

Squall could hear her fumbling with the phone and mumbling with another person before she answered.

"Oh that's a great idea Squall! Thanks for asking. I can't come over right away though. I'm out shopping with Selphie in Balamb. Maybe I can swing by in an hour or two. Um... is that okay?"

"Yes, that's fine. I'll see you then. Bye."

Squall ended the conversation abruptly and then looked down at the floor. Rinoa didn't have a great sense of time, he felt that she'd be later than she assumed she'd be. He walked back to his bedroom and laid down on his bed. He tucked his arms behind his head while laying flat on his back and staring at the blank white ceiling.

_Rinoa sounded really happy that I called._

He turned over onto his side.

_But I thought she'd rush over here sooner._

He drew up his legs towards his stomach.

_I mean, I didn't expect her to come running to me the second I called._

He curled up into a tight ball.

_Or maybe I did. Did I?_

He quietly laid there curled on his side while thinking. Another person might have taken this time to relax and listen to music, watch the Galbadian Bears game on TV, or take a stroll outside Garden in the fresh air, but Squall was not like other people. Instead of turning on music or watching TV he just quietly listened to his own steady breathing and the humming of the lights in his room. That was the usual soundtrack to his over-thinking sessions.

He didn't pause and linger long on his thoughts because it would end up making him despair. Instead he figured it would be more practical to devote his time to learning about the sorceress-knight bond.

He rolled to his other side and his eyes settled on the library books he'd borrowed from Rinoa about sorceresses. His hand reached out to grab them and he pulled them onto his bed. Quickly he sat up and started to flip through them, eager to have something to do and occupy his wandering mind.

He looked in the index to find which parts of the text were specifically about knights and bonds. He didn't want to waste time flipping through the book aimlessly. Squall read a passage from the book.

He didn't like what the passage had to say.

'The sorceress-knight bond is not highly understood. There is a debate as to the amount of control the sorceress has over the knight. Some scholars say that in the end the knight succumbs to the wishes of the sorceress and is forced to do her will. Others hold the position that the will and character of the knight plays an important role in how much power the sorceress has over the knight. The reasons why a knight is needed and chosen is also highly debated among scholars.'

Squall was not liking the direction that this book was leading. He placed the book down on his lap.

_What do they know about anything?_

He closed his eyes and all he could see was Rinoa having complete control over him. Could she dance him around like a puppet? He was starting to realize that the role of a sorceress knight was incredibly ill defined. It was like most of the critical information he needed about the subject was missing.

His fingers drummed nervously on the glossy pages of the library book while he tried to calm himself.

He thought that reading and gaining knowledge about the situation would make him worry less. If anything it had made him worry even more. He started to take a mental inventory of what he's witnessed personally about sorceresses and knights.

_I know Seifer was used like a puppet by Ultimecia, and Rinoa wouldn't do that to me. But how willing was Seifer in everything he did? I don't see Seifer as a weak-willed person, so how could he succumb to Ultimecia's wishes entirely? It probably hurt Seifer's ability to fend off Ultimecia because he had been in love with sorceresses and their knights since childhood. Was he ever fully in his right mind once she reached out to him?_

_What about Cid? He was Edea's knight, how did he order her execution? Cid seemed like he'd be MORE likely to do a sorceress's bidding. Maybe Cid was able to turn against his sorceress because it wasn't exactly just Edea, it was Ultimecia too._

_Was it because Seifer was the stronger of the two that he was able to be used more effectively by his sorceress? Was it proximity? Seifer usually was kept near Ultimecia. Maybe the bond was strengthened the closer the sorceress and knight were to each other._

_Why would Edea have chosen Cid to be her knight? Love. That was their type of bond. Ultimecia chose Seifer for his probable willingness to serve and his abilities. Power. Their bond was formed out of a mutual want of power. Maybe the type of bond is what governs the sorceress and knight relationship._

Squall tried to organize his rambling thoughts, but he felt he couldn't make sense of anything. He'd need to work with Rinoa more to discover what their connection was like.

_Cid, Edea, Seifer, and these books all gave me some information, but it seems that I'm going to have to figure the rest of this out myself. No, not just by myself... I don't want to worry Rinoa, but we're going to have to figure this out together._

While firmly closing his book, he looked over at the clock and saw that an hour had passed. He figured he should begin making the dinner that he'd promised Rinoa. He wanted to speak with her without everyone overhearing their conversation in the cafeteria. Garden knew that she was a sorceress and he was her knight, but he still didn't want to constantly remind them of that fact. Anyways, that meant he'd have to cook dinner tonight.

Squall swung his feet over his bed and neatly placed the sorceress book on his nightstand with the other library books. After he got to his feet he turned around and made sure to make sure his bedding was smoothed out nicely. He looked over his bedroom one more time to make sure it was orderly before giving it a nod and walking towards his kitchen.

The kitchen was neat like every other part of Squall's apartment. Squall liked order, and it was easy to have everything neat and clean when he barely spent any time there anyways. It was nice to have something bigger than a dorm room. Having a kitchen was a great perk, even if he didn't get to use it much.

He walked up to his pantry and opened the door. Looking inside didn't reveal much, other than some basics culinary staples and some practical and healthy snacks. He looked inside his refrigerator and freezer to survey what it had to offer. He mulled over his options for a minute before quickly deciding on something to make. He gathered some food in his arms, pulled out a cutting board and a knife and placed them on a counter before putting a big pot on the stove.

_Okay, I'll get a stew going and then whenever Rinoa shows up we can eat. It won't hurt it to simmer for a long time._

He started chopping up some vegetables before putting them into the pot along with some oil to sauté them. After a few minutes Squall added some spices along with pepper to allow the flavors to meld together. He then added some Centra beef that he had in the freezer, it would taste really nice in a stew.

After another couple of minutes the beef was browned and Squall added some tomato sauce and water. He reducing the boiling stew to a steady simmer, then went out to his living room to wait for Rinoa to show up. Along with the stew he had salad and some garlic bread that he would throw in the oven to brown when Rinoa arrived. A lot of times he had to make his own meals because he was so busy that he missed the normally scheduled cafeteria hours.

He walked into his living room towards his black leather couch before sighing and falling into it. The next thing he knew he heard a knocking at his door and the delicious smell of stew tickling at his nose. He looked out his window and realized that night had fallen marking the passage of time.

_I must have dozed off for a while. I've been so tired lately, all my worrying has made it difficult to have a peaceful night's rest. I guess it's catching up with me._

He sleepily stretched his arms out while wiping his eyes with the back of his hand as the knocking at his door continued.

"Rinoa, I'm coming. Just a minute."

He got up and sleepily lumbered over to his door before opening it. The first thing he saw when the door swung open was Rinoa's excited smile.

"Hi Squall! Can I come in?"

Squall stood to the side and allowed her to enter. She walked in and then did a quick spin as he was closing and locking his door.

Rinoa seemed to be wearing something he hadn't seen before. It was a little flouncy cream colored dress with a very light pink floral pattern all over it. She had a small purse and pink ballet flats to match. Squall noticed that once again this was a break from something Rinoa would normally wear. Well she had been shopping with Selphie. Something about it reminded Squall of a night gown, as it was low cut and didn't have sleeves, but he figured he shouldn't point that out. He also noticed that Rinoa had obviously showered and put on perfume as her hair was slightly damp and a nice lightly floral scent filled the air. Rinoa never changed her perfume.

 _She always smells nice,_ Squall thought.

Rinoa noticed Squall taking a long time looking at her and said before the question could be asked.

"I picked up this dress with Selphie today. Do you like it?" She once again turned around, this time slowly with her hands slightly away from her body allowing the dress to flair slightly. She tried to suppress a small giggle.

"Yes," Squall said flatly.

At this Rinoa stopped. She was hoping for compliment or something. Whatever. She resisted the urge to stick out her tongue and say something mean as Squall hadn't even changed his clothes.

 _What sort of date was this? Is this a date? Does he even know what a date is?_ Rinoa thought to herself.

"Should I take off my shoes?" Rinoa asked while standing awkwardly at the front of his apartment.

"Always."

She set her purse down by the front door and lightly kicked off her shoes forming a V pattern. She then moved closer to the center of his living room, looking around the apartment and unsure of where she should situate herself. She turned and saw Squall bending down and arranging her shoes, straightening them and placing them in a spot right next to his boots. After that he took her purse and put it on a hook by the front door. She kept rubbing her arms and pacing the floor while he was compelled to perform his neatening ritual.

Squall noticed her nervousness and it dawned on him that he should act like a host. Squall waited until Rinoa turned and looked up at him waiting for some direction.

"Would you like to have a seat on the couch? I can get you something to drink if you'd like? I have orange juice, milk, and water. Dinner should be ready soon. Let me just go check on it."

"Oh, thanks. I guess water is fine for me."

She walked over to his couch and smoothed out her dress behind her legs before taking a seat.

 _This couch hasn't gotten any more comfortable than the last time,_ she thought regretfully as she shifted her body around.

She turned her head to see Squall in the kitchen stirring a huge metal pot using a wooden spoon.

"What's that delicious smell?" Rinoa asked while taking in a deep breath.

"It's just beef stew. I didn't have time to plan a proper meal. I also have a nice garden salad, hope you don't mind oil and vinegar dressing."

"Sounds great," Rinoa said.

Ten minutes later along with the wonderful aroma of beef stew was the unmistakable smell of garlic bread. Squall and Rinoa had been catching up on each other's activities over the past few days as Squall had busied himself with getting out plates and bowls, filling up glasses and setting the table for dinner. Rinoa would have been glad to help, but he seemed proud of getting things just right. Rinoa thought to herself that if it made him happy she would just keep him company.

Squall finished placing the last of the silverware on the small dining table and asked if Rinoa needed to wash up. Rinoa got up and washed her hands in the bathroom sink, looked over herself in the mirror and then walked out. Squall stood by the chair and motioned for Rinoa to sit. He pulled out the chair for her and then sat down opposite. Squall ladled the stew from the pot carefully counting with his eyes to make sure that he and Rinoa would get the same amount. Rinoa took the bowl from his hands and smiled.

"Thanks for making me dinner."

Squall gave a little nod with his head and then started to eat.

Rinoa blew on the hot stew and had to wait a minute for it to cool down. She tasted it and the mix of spices along with the vegetables and beef made a wonderful flavor.

"This is delicious Squall. I'll never know how you can put together a meal so quickly. I didn't even know that you could cook."

"It's a good skill to have. People should be able to take care of themselves. You shouldn't rely on others for everything," Squall replied before taking another mouthful of stew.

"Yea, I guess I know what you're saying. It is nice having a cafeteria around though. I've never had much practice cooking. When I lived with my dad, we had staff cook for us. Now I just live in a dorm room, and it doesn't even have a kitchen."

Squall paused while eating and thought about what she'd been saying.

"Well, I'm not here a lot, so if you want, you could use my kitchen."

"Thanks Squall, that sounds like fun."

Rinoa tried to hide her excited smile behind her spoonful of stew.

They finished the rest of their meal in a warm and comfortable silence. Although Squall was meaning to speak with Rinoa on important sorceress-knight matters that night, he had no desire to disrupt their contentment. After they both cleaned up the dishes they ended back in Squall's living room to sit and relax on his couch. They sat at either end, slightly turned to face each other.

_I should probably say something to Rinoa about everything I've learned recently about sorceresses and knights._

While thinking to himself, Squall noticed Rinoa rubbing her arms and legs, trying to get comfortable on his leather couch. She kept trying to tuck her bare feet under herself.

"Are you cold?"

"Um yea, maybe a little. It was nice and warm outside today when the sun was out. I guess I'm getting kinda cold now. I wish I wore some socks."

Squall stood up without saying anything and disappeared to his bedroom for a minute. He quickly returned with a pillow and a folded blue blanket. Rinoa smiled and took the pillow and blanket from him, wrapping it around her body and putting the pillow behind herself. Squall leaned towards her and made sure to tuck the ends around her bare feet, and then he retreated back to his side of the couch.

 _Finally I'm sort of comfortable on this big stupid leather couch_ , she thought to herself happily.

Nobody seemed to want to break the spell of contentment that they were experiencing by saying much of anything. Squall's worries and Rinoa's loneliness had just melted away. They just sat there relaxing while gazing out of the window. Occasionally somebody would say something, but it never led to a full conversation. With his belly full and his mind uncharacteristically at ease, Squall felt like he was being lulled to sleep. He chose to not fight the sensation as he felt himself being pulled under by sleep. His body leaned back and went limp.

* * *

Squall, Rinoa, and Angelo were in a big grassy field on a bright sunny day. A few fluffy white clouds flew across an impossibly bright blue sky. Rinoa was trying to teach Angelo to do tricks. Squall smiled at the scene until he realized that he was doing dog tricks as well. Whatever she commanded he would do. When she ordered Angelo to sit, both Squall and Angelo sat. When she ordered Angelo to roll over, both Squall and Angelo rolled over. She ordered them to beg. Angelo sat and raised a paw while whimpering. Squall got down on his knees and reached his hand out to her. When he placed his hand into her hand he was rewarded with a pat on the head.

After every trick Rinoa gave them each a little dog biscuit. They tasted so good and meaty. Squall couldn't think to do anything but what his master wanted. All he wanted was the next treat and her smiles. The compulsion was overwhelming and Squall couldn't think of anything else to do but submit to Rinoa's commands.

Squall was becoming horrified that he had a compulsion to do everything that she asked. He was conflicted because he didn't want to obey, but he still wanted to be rewarded. He strained against her wishes and stood up to run away when he felt something catch around his neck and he fell into the grass. He reached up to feel what caught him in the throat. His hand felt a leash around his neck, but it was invisible. He pulled at the invisible collar and leash trying to find a way to detach it, but the collar had no latch and there was no obvious way to cut the leash.

Rinoa walked up to him holding the invisible leash in her hand and said, "bad boy! you need more training," while wiggling her finger at him in a harsh manner.

Suddenly a monster appeared and Squall and Angelo immediately rushed in to protect Rinoa. She called out 'Angelo Strike'. Squall, wanting to be the hero, was first to rush at the enemy and strike it down with Angelo close behind him. He then collapsed in the grass exhausted. Rinoa came up to him once the threat disappeared, told him he was a good boy and gave him another dog biscuit while sitting down beside him and petting his messy hair. He happily crunched down on the dog treat.

Squall suddenly was awakened by the strange sensation of somebody actually petting his hair while he was grinding his teeth. He opened his eyes and saw Rinoa's flushed and smiling face hovering over his while she played with his floppy bangs. Her cool perfumed hands softly brushed his hot sweaty forehead while letting his silky brown hair fall through her pale fingers. He quickly pulled back and sat upright, looking very alarmed.

Rinoa jumped backwards at Squall's sudden movement.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to upset you. I just thought you looked so sweet when you'd fallen asleep. I was only trying to calm you down because you seemed like you were having a nightmare."

She quickly scampered back to her end of the couch.

He realized that she'd wrapped him in the blanket and arranged the pillow behind him.

"I was just trying to make sure that you were sleeping in a comfortable position. I didn't want you to wake up stiff and sore."

Complete silence filled the apartment.

Squall was still troubled by his strange dream and hadn't spoken yet. His mind was slow and still trying to process what was happening.

Rinoa interpreted his silence as either extreme awkwardness or anger. A strong bloom of redness started to spread all over her usually pale face. She abruptly jumped up and said goodnight while grabbing her shoes and purse before fleeing through his front door.

Squall's foggy head barely had time to comprehend what had happened when he heard the sound of his door slamming shut and reverberating throughout his apartment. Rinoa had already left. He looked down as his blue blanket fell limply off him to the floor.

* * *

Rinoa raced down the hall not bothering to put on her shoes. In a minute she was back in the privacy of her room where she sat on the floor immediately after entering. She pressed her back into the hard pressure of the closed front door and began to cry. She'd not meant for things to get awkward but they were becoming increasingly so. She still felt like Squall had been gradually opening up to her more, and she felt that maybe she had ruined that progress.

 _What am I doing? I need to pull it together._ _I need to be strong and help Squall to come closer to me. I need him to be my friend and hopefully something a whole lot more. I can't do this sorceress thing without him._

After a few minutes she hadn't moved from the door leading out into the hall, and she was still gripping her purse and shoes. Before she could drop all the things she was holding, her cell phone rang and she noticed it was Squall. She didn't want him to know she'd been crying, so she let it go to voicemail. A few seconds later the beep of the phone showed that a new message was in her inbox. She hit the button to listen.

Squall's level voice came through the phone. 'Rinoa, This is Squall. I need to speak with you about our relationship. Please stop by my office when you can tomorrow. I really want to discuss some things with you. I hope you enjoyed dinner.'

_I'm so confused. That doesn't sound good._

Angelo sensed his master's distress, and he decided to place his head on her lap sympathetically. It was some time before Rinoa had cried herself out enough to go to bed.


	7. Chapter 7

The thumping of Rinoa's heavy black boots echoed slowly down the hallway as she headed towards Squall's office. There was a storm of emotions that had been raging inside of her since she'd heard Squall's vague voicemail the night before. She didn't know whether to feel happy or sad. The only clear part of Squall's voicemail was that he wanted to meet with her sometime today, but she wanted to put it off indefinitely. Normally she'd be happy to see him, but not today, and not under these circumstances. Her feelings and emotions were still raw from the night before.

She had wanted to make herself look put together and strong to hide the fact that she felt the complete opposite. She'd agonized on what to wear, trying on multiple outfits. Rinoa felt like she had tried on all her clean clothes in various combinations. She finally chose something that would make her feel powerful and in control, and the only thing she had that slightly made her feel that way was her favorite blue sweater outfit and her black boots. Rinoa felt that she could kick some butt in that outfit because she already had, although she'd had a lot of help.

_I'm a strong independent woman who can make her own decisions... Ok, not a lot of that statement is true, but I want it to be true. Maybe it will be someday._

She'd been procrastinating all morning by taking Angelo for a long walk, exercising, and organizing her room, so it was approaching lunch time as she made her way to Squall's office. Actually Rinoa was hoping Squall was busy with a meeting or had stepped out of his office to grab a bit of lunch. Then she could return to her room, say that she had tried to see him and it would be true. She really didn't want to talk with him today. The embarrassment she felt from last night was still fresh in her mind and she didn't want Squall to think that she was weird. Her mind was racing. Although she was a little excited that Squall wanted to talk about their relationship at all, but knowing Squall she was scared that the conversation would go something like this.

'Rinoa, you're a wonderful person, but it's me and not you. I just don't have time for relationship right now. I'm sorry, I thought I'd made that clear.'

If she'd been employed by Garden she would have thought from his tone on the voicemail that he was going to fire her.

Or worse Squall would tell her that they were sending her away to seal her powers. Ok, that was more a nightmare scenario than something she was really worrying about.

Her imagination was very active. Her father had often told her that it was too active for her own good.

She really didn't know what was going to happen, that was the worst of it. Squall's voicemail had been so vague and she just couldn't bring herself to call him and ask him what all this was about.

So even though she had gotten up early, for her anyways, she spent the morning dreading and worrying. Even with all of her thinking and worrying, she was no closer to understanding the cryptic voicemail that Squall had left. She had spent a good ten minutes listening to the voicemail over and over to where she had it memorized.

'Rinoa, This is Squall. I need to speak with you about our relationship. Please stop by my office when you can tomorrow. I really want to discuss some things with you. I hope you enjoyed dinner.'

If he'd asked her to come to his apartment, she would assume that it'd be a personal talk. But since he asked her to come to his commander's office, that was what really threw her for a loop. It was like he was trying to intimidate her. Rinoa could only hope he was oblivious to how he phrased his voicemail to her. He often was oblivious to many things concerning social interactions.

She had even thought of calling Selphie or maybe Quistis to ask if Squall had mentioned anything about this as they were around Squall ten times as long as Rinoa was each and every week. She was just so nervous that if she asked her friends that they would tell her what she feared.

She could hear Quistis saying something like 'maybe you've just read too much into it.' Selphie would most likely say something to comfort her even if it wasn't accurate. So instead she spent all night thinking about their relationship and fretting. She tried to analyze the things that Squall had said that would give her a clue as to where she stood with him. Things were just so confusing.

 _With all the training that SeeDs received, you would think that he'd be able to communicate clearly,_ Rinoa thought huffily.

Her musings had led her to the suite of offices that were reserved for the commander and Garden staff. Rinoa slowly reached out to knock at the heavy wooden door that had Squall's brass nameplate on it.

_Pull it together Heartlilly. This is not like you. Forget the pet book, forget your plans, forget everything, just be who you are._

_Just be yourself, and everything will turn out great!_

_Wow, that sounds so dumb, even when I'm just saying it to myself. I must be panicking._

* * *

Squall drummed his fingers on his wooden desk while rereading a memo from Cid that was hastily placed in his hands as he was leaving the Ragnarok yesterday. It was crumpled and had some coffee stains on it, but it was printed on official letterhead and he could read it.

'From: Headmaster Cid Kramer

To: Commander Squall Leonhart

Effective immediately, Rinoa Heartilly is to begin sorceress training with you. Edea is to help guide you both while you are getting started. Fit these trainings into your weekly schedule and then report the progress to me. Proper training is a priority, and it should be treated as such. Further inquiries should be directed to either me or Edea.'

Squall laid the crumpled memo on his desk while trying to flatten it out with his hands. Cid's careless nature about important matters irked Squall to no end. His efforts made the paper straighten slightly, but Squall was still bothered by the unprofessional sloppiness of it. He also was annoyed that Cid had just handed him the memo without verbalizing any of the contents during their lengthy meeting. He surely had enough time on the Ragnarok. They were away for hours.

_That is so like Cid, just handing me some information when I'm halfway out the door to something else._

Squall's grumbling thoughts were interrupted by timid knocking at his door. At first he thought he'd imagined it, but then it continued a few seconds later.

"Come in," Squall said. Nothing happened he so spoke louder while leaning forward. "It's unlocked!" Still nothing. "ENTER!" he yelled.

Squall thought of just getting up and opening the door when he saw the handle start to turn.

* * *

Rinoa took a deep breath and suddenly thought about just turning around and leaving, but she mentally braced herself. She slowly opened the door and entered Squall's office. As she walked towards his desk she dragged her feet slightly on the carpet, her body tensed up not wanting to go through with the coming conversation.

_Don't think that I will be that easy to dump Leonhart. Although, is our relationship defined enough that it is even possible to be dumped at this point? Maybe being dumped would be a step up from where I am right now. It would at least let me know where I stand. Stop thinking so much! He's looking at you funny!_

Squall tilted his head to the side and looked at her apprehensively with wide eyes. He made a motion for Rinoa to sit in the chair in front of his desk.

She started to get nervous and oddly felt like she was a schoolgirl who'd been called into the principal's office. Although the thought of a cute teenaged principal was hilarious. Balamb Garden sure was crazy, even if Squall acted like he was in his 30s, he still was a teenager. A responsible and very, very serious teenager. Dead serious. Giddiness started bubbling up from her insides, she suppressed a nervous giggle, and her mind started to get very active.

Rinoa imagined marching around his desk and plopping herself down onto Squall's lap and giving him a big hug. Although she'd probably have to trap him in the Ragnarok to do that, and only if nobody else was around, and only if they were in the cold vastness of space and their deaths were possibly imminent. Knowing the missions that Garden sent SeeDs on, it just might happen again.

Well, he definitely wouldn't appreciate it here, so instead she sat down in the chair that Squall had indicated. She had popped into his office a number of times before trying to get Squall to join her for dinner or to take a walk with Angelo. He was usually so busy that he would tell her to do something with Selphie or Quistis instead and then put his head back into his work.

 _He didn't really get the point._ _He sure is kinda difficult. Why do I like him so much again?_

Rinoa looked up at Squall as he was nervously brushing off the shoulders of his crisp and well-cut SeeD uniform. He then pushed some of his fantastically shiny brown hair out of the way of his perfect face while trying to get Rinoa's attention with his steely blue-gray eyes.

_Wow... he is so good looking... especially in that uniform... and he saved my life... a few times in the past... he'll probably do it again a few of times in the future... hmmm... What was I just thinking about a minute ago?_

Squall began to speak and Rinoa snapped to attention with a blush and a silly lopsided smile on her face. He was direct and to the point.

"Cid asked me to meet with you and to arrange a time to start your training as sorceress. We should work it into a schedule and give him regular progress reports."

Rinoa had been confused. What did her sorceress abilities have to do with their relationship?

"Um, Squall. I'm a little confused. Your voicemail message said that you needed to talk to me about our relationship. What does this have to do with our relationship?"

He looked her directly in the eyes with a questioning look and a sharply raised eyebrow. Apparently something was incredibly obvious to him that was not to Rinoa. He started to speak slowly for her to understand what he was saying.

"Rinoa, I'm your knight. I'll be training with you. I called you to discuss our sorceress-knight relationship. I've been meaning to speak with you about this for a while now. I even wanted to speak with you last night, but I fell asleep on my couch and you went back to your room."

He paused and looked down at his heavy wooden desk.

"I thought that maybe we should talk about this in the light of day when we can both pay attention and... not fall asleep. Something this important requires our full attention. This training is a priority for both of us."

Relief briefly flooded over Rinoa, followed by anger that Squall couldn't see how his poorly phrased message might make her feel ALL NIGHT.

"Well, okay." Rinoa had wanted to add another few choice words but had instead bit her tongue.

"What will we actually do in training?"

"Edea and I will be teaching you how to use and control your sorceress powers. I take it from previous conversations with Cid and Edea that the common belief is that either the sorceress learns to control her powers or the powers start to control the sorceress. Personally I don't believe anyone else really knows too much more. There really haven't been enough sorceresses to do a thorough study on the subject. At least there haven't been enough sorceresses that have been willing to be studied."

Rinoa started to smile inwardly as she realized that training would involve spending more time with Squall. And it would be a Garden-approved excuse too. Squall did anything Garden asked, eventually, even if he didn't want to.

"I think that we should start training twice a week and see how it goes. We may need to increase or decrease the sessions."

"Sure Squall." Rinoa said

After Squall had consulted his own schedule and cross referenced it with Cid and Edea's schedules he finally set a date in the middle of next week in which they could begin their training.

Rinoa could see that Squall was anxious to get back to work as he looked down to his desk and collected his papers. The wheels were turning in his head as he looked back into her eyes.

"Do you have any questions?" He said in a professional instructor's tone. He even sounded a little bit like Quistis.

 _How much do they hang out together during the day?_ Rinoa thought with a pang of jealousy.

Rinoa only wanted to ask one question.

"Can I use your kitchen?"

He wasn't expecting a question like that. If she had a question, he thought it would be more on topic.

Rinoa continued to explain, "last night your cooking inspired me and I wanted to do some baking."

Squall thought for a moment and remembered the last time that he had given Rinoa his keycard and he'd been locked out of his apartment. He frowned as he imagined his keycard lost in Rinoa's messy room. He quickly thought of a better option.

He turned to his computer and started to type rapidly. He punched in a few more times decisively, and then began to speak.

"There. I changed the your card's access. Now you will be able to get into my room. Be warned, I'll know when you come into my room as every swipe is monitored."

Technically he knew that Garden frowned upon giving students more access than was absolutely necessary, but he also knew of a few friends that bent the rules and had changed the computers to allow access. It wasn't more than a week after they returned from defeating Ultimcecia when he noticed that Selphie had changed both her and Irvine's access codes to allow them to enter each other's rooms. He was tempted while he was at it to change his access to allow entry into Rinoa's room too, but he felt he owed Rinoa a space of her own.

 _Maybe I shouldn't have changed the key codes, just because I'm the commander doesn't mean I should bend rules,_ he thought to himself a minute too late.

Squall faltered for a moment and wanted to go back in time and erase the access code from the computer. He didn't often break rules, and he was getting second thoughts. He enjoyed his own space and having privacy. He briefly imagined Rinoa throwing open the door and waltzing in on him as he was getting ready to take a shower. Or worse, Rinoa AND Selphie barging in on him. Nudity! Terror! Laughing! He could practically hear the high-pitched girlish giggling. An intensely strong wave of fear and embarrassment rolled over him.

Rinoa started sensing some of Squall's thoughts and feelings, not in words, but in glimpses of images and general feelings.

 _What is going on in my head right now? Why am I thinking of Squall in the shower? It must be hormones or something... Rinoa! Be professional! You're in his office! What is the matter with me? I gotta get out of here. I feel really hot and WEIRD!_ Rinoa thought frantically to herself while trying to keep a mask of calm coolness of her face. Her head began to swim as images floated through her mind preventing any clear thought. She didn't understand where these ideas were coming from.

"Thank you. I'll always ask before coming over. I don't want to invade your privacy," she said with strained calmness while her left eyelid started to twitch.

Squall let out a breath that he didn't realize he'd been holding in. Relief flooded him.

The oddly oppressive feelings and images that had assaulted Rinoa ended as quickly as they started. She felt like her normal self again.

 _Oh good, I'm fine. That was weird. Wacky hormones!_ She thought to herself.

She straightened her back and flipped some of her dark hair behind her shoulders to help herself regain her composure. She felt confident again, but then her stomach made a little growling noise. Squall couldn't hear it, but he did notice Rinoa clutching her stomach. At that moment Squall realized that he hadn't had anything since breakfast more than six hours ago. Although he had a lot of work he knew that if he tried to do it on an empty stomach it would take twice as long.

"Rinoa. Would you like to grab some lunch?"

"I'd like that very much." Rinoa was hoping he would ask.

"Just give me a couple of minutes to check if there are any pressing matters."

Squall typed on the laptop, checking his email and the office voicemail. After a quick couple of minutes Squall grabbed his keycard and after shutting the door to his office escorted Rinoa down the hallway towards the cafeteria.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later Squall was sitting out on the Quad with Rinoa on a bench, each with a tray of food in their laps. It was a cloudless day and the bright sun warmed them. A slight breeze caused Rinoa's dark hair to lift and fall back onto her shoulders. Rinoa had hinted it was a nice day and suggested that they find a seat in the Quad. Those passing by found it strange to see the commander sitting there. It was as if he was an animal that was outside his indigenous habitat.

Rinoa was having a good time chatting away about the last couple of days. She had calmed down about the whole relationship thing and it now only occupied a small part of her mind. She knew from her studies that knights didn't usually abandon their sorceresses. And some Internet research said that the bond was permanent. Well, it was an Internet article, but she hoped it was accurate. Anyway, it seemed unlikely that Squall was like going to leave her. Their relationship had time to grow organically on its own.

That bit of contentment she felt the night before resurfaced. She was beginning to enjoy herself. Strong feelings of love and affection washed over her.

She felt the sudden urge to grab hold of Squall's hand to give it a squeeze. They had been sitting there having finished lunch a few minutes ago. Instead of acting upon the urge Rinoa slowly placed her hand on the stone bench beside him while they both stared out towards the sky. She was surprised when Squall reached out and placed his bare hand over hers, and rubbed it gently for a minute. She held very still in shock. It was tender and loving but extremely subtle. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the beginnings of a smile were playing at the corner of his lips while they sat in the warm sunshine together.

She laughed inwardly at seeing Squall participating in a Public Display of Affection in the Quad with her, but she continued to act calm and normal to not scare him off. Her eyes stayed on the bright blue sky while she tried to breathe normally.

"Well, I should really head back to finish some work," he said as he took his hand off Rinoa's and placed it in his pocket after getting to his feet. A flushed look came over his face. He then bent in closely to Rinoa's face, and she braced herself for a possible kiss or a hug. Instead Squall lightly brushed by Rinoa's arm and grabbed the food-trays filled with forks, plates, cups, and napkins from beside her.

"I'll just return these to the cafeteria," Squall said softly while clearing his throat and lifting up the trays awkwardly for her to see them. He continued to stand in front of Rinoa, silhouetted darkly against the sun, thinking before continuing.

"I'll see you for your training," Squall recovered his voice and said in a professional manner before leaving with the trays.

 _What was that?! I nearly kissed Rinoa in front of everybody!_ Squall thought frantically to himself.

New feelings had for a moment rushed over him and his only recourse was to retreat and reassess the situation. He stood still for a moment and then turned and walked back inside leaving Rinoa sitting on the stone bench in the bright sunshine.

 _Okay that was a nice, a little awkward, but nice,_ she thought to herself.

Rinoa took a deep breath and sat still, just enjoying the moment. It was a brief moment however because something bounced out of nowhere right into her back. She had to brace herself to keep from falling over. When she looked over her shoulder she saw Selphie's smiling face. Selphie grabbed Rinoa's shoulders while stepping widely over the stone bench to sit on the same side, accidentally flashing her white underpants at her.

"Selphie, what are you doing? Were you hiding in the bushes watching us or something? You better not have been recording any of that on your phone. What have I told you about taking videos of people without their permission?!"

"That was soooooo cute," Selphie said in her sing-song voice. Her eyes started to light up. "Oh, did you cast a spell on him? Because I've never seen Squall look like that EVER. He couldn't keep his HAND off you! And I could almost see a normal human emotion on his face! Tee hee."

"I did not cast a spell on him! How is that even possible?"

"I bet if you mix up a confuse, a berserk, and a zombie spell in the exact right combination, you could make some kind of powerful love-potion spell. Can sorceresses mix magic? If they can, you could do all kinds of fun stuff. Let's test it out on Irvine and Squall!"

Selphie started to mimic Rinoa's voice and mannerisms, "You're going to like me! You're going to like me! Did it work? Tee hee! I think it did work because you briefly lost your mind and jumped into space for me!"

Selphie then started to mimic Squall's deep soft-spoken voice, "Baby, I love you. Let's die together!"

"Squall, I'm a sorceress, you have to do exactly what I say, and I say we gotta cuddle. Yes we DO! Yes we DO!" Selphie sang in a falsetto girlish squeal while putting her hands on her hips.

She reached out and grabbed Rinoa in an exaggerated manly way to give her a big cuddly grumpy bear hug. Rinoa's face was red with embarrassment, and she shoved Selphie roughly off her.

"Selphie! SHUT UP! I didn't tell you all those things so you could make fun of me! Don't tell Squall any of that... or I'll... or I'll... test out some of my sorceress powers on YOU!"

_I don't really know what my sorceress powers can do, but she doesn't know that. If I could force Squall to do stuff, our relationship would be different. Actually that sounds more creepy than fun. I don't want a zombie._

Selphie's smiling face sobered a little bit on hearing Rinoa's threat. She gulped nervously.

"What Selphie? We were just having lunch out here. I don't have magical love powers. And what were you doing in the BUSHES?"

"Oh, I was just... you know... hanging out... on my lunch break," Selphie said while looking down at her brown boots and trying to smooth out her wrinkled yellow dress. She began to pluck some twigs and leaves out of her boots.

Rinoa thought Selphie was acting weirdly. She heard some rustling in the bushes beside her, and a lanky figure emerged. Irvine approached casually as if nothing were out of the ordinary. His normally well-groomed auburn hair had some twigs and leaves in it.

_Eeeeew, was he here the whole time too?! Wait, were they making out in the bushes on their lunch break?!_

"Hello Rinoa darlin'," Irvine drawled while sauntering towards them, and taking a seat on the bench in between Selphie and Rinoa. He slung his big heavy arms over their shoulders and raised an eyebrow at Rinoa suggestively. "What a beautifully gorgeous day, the birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing... love is in the air... turning even the most ice cold of hearts to thoughts of..."

"Irvine! Shut up!" Rinoa poked him in the ribs in anger.

"Irvy!" Selphie poked him in the ribs harder, but just for the fun of it.

Irvine made a playfully exaggerated frowning face at the both of them while putting his arms up in the air to show he was surrendering.

"Okay, well I guess I'll see you lovely ladies later then." He continued to smile while getting up. A leaf fluttered out of his cowboy hat as he tipped it towards them in a dramatic farewell. Their eyes stayed on him as he slowly walked away and back towards the main hub of Balamb Garden.

"So I guess you overheard everything Squall and I were talking about during our lunch? Truth be told I'm a little nervous about exploring my powers. Squall hasn't given you an idea as to what he means by training did he? If he did you probably can't even talk to me about it..."

Selphie had only half listened to Rinoa as she had thoughts of party-planning in her head. She turned the subject back onto Squall and Rinoa's relationship.

"Do you think he's going to ask you to the Garden Social? It's coming up really soon." Selphie was musing.

"Selph, that's more than a month away. I don't think even Squall plans that far in advance. And it has the word 'social' in it, so that doesn't really seem like something he'd like."

"Rinoa, he's got to go to the Garden Social, he's the Commander of Balamb Garden! Plus I made sure that he signed it in the contract."

"What contract? What are you talking about?"

"I just slipped a little clause into one of the requisition forms he had to sign. No problem at all! Actually all instructors and staff have to attend."

"Selphie! You're a sneaky genius!"

"Oh Rinoa, it'll be great. Remember to thank me later for your wonderful evening. The music, the gowns, the uniforms... you and him... on a breezy starlit balcony..." Selphie began making kissy noises.

"Selphie, I don't even know what to say to you right now," Rinoa said while reflexively brushing off her upper arms. Blushing at the thought of Squall kissing her, not just because the world had been saved, or he had too much celebratory champagne, or because he under a sorceress's spell, but because he truly wanted to kiss her.

"I think I'm going to change the subject completely. Do you think you could help me learn to bake? I'm really awful, but I'd like to try."

"Woo hoo! SUGAR! Of course I'll help you Rinoa! We can make a big cake. There's this recipe that I've wanted to try. It's a three layer lemon cake with butter cream frosting." Selphie bounced in her seat while waiting for Rinoa to give her the details of what she'd like to make. Selphie wasn't a master chef by any means, but she could bake a wide variety of sweets.

"Um, maybe we could begin by making something easier. I was thinking some type of cookie."

"What type do you want to make? I can easily do chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, oatmeal raisin, lemon cookies, gingersnaps, molasses cookies..." Selphie was showing no signs of stopping.

Rinoa was stunned by how many cookies varieties that Selphie knew how to make, but she knew what type of cookie she wanted to make, so she politely interrupted her friend.

"How about some soft and gooey chocolate chips cookies," Rinoa said remembering what the Orphanage Gang had said a lunch the other day.

"Sounds Delicious!" Selphie squeaked and Rinoa breathed a sigh of relief as Selphie forgot about teasing her about Squall.


	8. Chapter 8

Rinoa laid back on her soft pink bed while looking up at the ceiling of her dark bedroom. The only light in the room was coming from the glowing screen of her laptop beside her. The music that was quietly playing though her laptop's speakers sounded muffled through her bedding. Her thoughts were jumping around frantically, and she was trying to think through what had been happening recently in her life. Her fingers fiddled with the hem of her pajamas while she put her thoughts in order.

_I'm so anxious about my first sorceress training session. I wonder how it's going to go._

Due to Squall's busy schedule, Rinoa hadn't seen very much of him lately. She was becoming increasingly worried about her upcoming training session with him and Edea. Plus she didn't even have the distraction of friends because it seemed that all of Selphie's free moments were spent on party planning or hanging out with Irvine. Rinoa's cookie baking project had to be put on hold until she could schedule a large block of time with Selphie to help her. Rinoa wished that Selphie had put her on a higher priority, but she was busy mentally preparing herself for her sorceress training anyway.

 _The training session is more important than baking cookies, I guess._ She grumbled to herself.

Squall had only briefly mentioned what they were going to do in training upon passing in the halls, but he had said that Rinoa absolutely needed suitable work-out attire. Rinoa had spent a large amount of time sorting and organizing her clothes in her messy room to find what she wanted to wear. She finally settled on a pair of baby blue exercise shorts and a black t-shirt to go along with her blue hooded sweatshirt. A great side effect from her organizing was that her room was now momentarily cleaner, and it was good because it kept her mind off her upcoming training. She had once been excited about it, but now was getting nervous.

On Friday she had received an email from Squall with more details about what the training sessions were going to be like, but instead of calming her insecurities they only intensified as the week dragged on.

She knew that Squall would be there and she didn't want to disappoint him. He'd been raised in a rigid military environment and she wasn't trained to do the same things as cadets or SeeDs. She'd fought alongside them in the battle against Ultimecia, and she was proud of her role, but she clearly lacked their training. Making SeeD was a difficult thing to do, and it would be ridiculous to expect that the girl who just showed up could match the skills that they'd been honing all their lives.

Instead of opening the email on the day she got it, she had chosen to ignore it with the hope that it would magically disappear along with the burden of her growing powers. But hiding from responsibility was different than not having responsibility. She had to deal with it eventually.

_Okay, it's time to do this._

It was already late Monday night and she felt that she had avoided the email long enough and decided that it needed to be read. She pulled her laptop onto her legs and tried to get comfy on the lumpy piles of pink blankets before clicking her email open. The computer screen's glow illuminated her worried face in the dark. Angelo felt Rinoa's anxiety and hopped in bed beside her for emotional support. Rinoa reached out and patted Angelo on the head.

"Good idea boy, let's read this together," she spoke out loud to her darkened room.

She noticed that it was just a small email.

_Is this all? I'm probably worried for nothing._

The email was very direct. Very Squall-like.

She sighed and started to read his email.

From: S_Leonhart at B-Garden dot org

To: Timber_Princess123 at tmail dot com

Subject: Training

_Hmmm... maybe I shouldn't have let Zone and Watts set up my email address for me a while back. Maybe Squall can get me an official Balamb Garden email address. Okay, I have to stop procrastinating. Just read the email!_

The First Sorceress Knight training will take place on Wednesday at 8am. Field C has been reserved for this purpose. Please come prepared. Wear clothing suitable for physical activity.

The training session will consist of the following:

1\. Running - 15 minutes

2\. Strength Training - 15 minutes

3\. Introduction of Magical Theory (Edea) - 30 minutes

4\. Basic Sorceress Training (Edea) - 30 minutes

5\. Practice - 30 minutes

Rinoa groaned. She had talked to Squall yesterday and he had assured her the first training would be light.

"Leonhart, You call this light?" She yelled at the computer not expecting a response. Angelo who was sitting beside her upon hearing the yelling slightly raised his head to look around for danger. After a minute of silence he placed his head back on the bed.

_Oh well, at least I get to spend a few hours with Squall. Hopefully I won't make a total fool of myself and accidentally blow up anything._

She flopped back down into her bed and petted Angelo for comfort.

* * *

Squall was sitting in his apartment at the same time Rinoa was finally reading the email that he'd sent days ago. The first training session with Rinoa was also increasingly on his mind. His fingers were idling over his laptop's keyboard indecisively. He was mulling over the very same itinerary that he had sent to her because he was contemplating expanding the training by adding a couple of items.

He looked over the list again. It was short but he knew that he shouldn't tax Rinoa too much the first time out. She wasn't SeeD after all. Even after the months that they had spent together during the war, Rinoa was not at the same level as the others. He sighed and deleted the additions that he had just made, which kept the list the same. He didn't know how much strength and stamina she had maintained after the defeat of Ultimecia. She had struggled to keep up with the others during the war, but she had done very well for herself all things considered. He knew she wasn't a SeeD, but she had definitely mastered GF usage and some basic fighting.

_Let's just start her off with some exercises to improve her coordination, strength, and stamina. A healthy body can withstand physical and emotional stress better than an unhealthy body. Maybe I should speak to her about the importance of a healthy diet too. I'm not 100% sure what a knight is needed for, but I'm going to be able to help her physically at least. After that Edea can begin teaching some basic magic techniques. She can train her in how sorceresses control their magic. Between the two of us, I'm sure Rinoa will be able to figure out how to control herself better. It's just going to be another sort of discipline to learn._

From his research it seemed important that a sorceress learned to control her powers. He thought it was best if the sorceress learned how to control herself willingly, otherwise outsiders would try to control her powers for her. While researching, he had come across certain methods of controlling sorceresses. But some of the methods were unappealing at best, and horrible at worst. He just couldn't bring himself to subject Rinoa to them.

The Odine Bangle was not very reliable. Maybe it would be some day, but not yet.

Sealing certainly was an option that nobody, especially Squall, wanted to discuss with her again, ever.

Some resources had suggested that a sorceress could be controlled by her emotions. The stronger the emotion, the more a person could use and control a sorceress. Fear, hate, anger and love were amongst the more effective emotions that were believed to be useful. It seemed to be a controversial theory and no definite evidence had been cited in the literature to date.

_That sounds pretty manipulative. All of these books treat sorceresses like they weren't people. In fact they treat them like rabid animals. That might have been a reason so many of them had been driven to hurt others. Even well-behaved animals can turn ferocious when they are cornered and threatened by a predator._

_Matron was the only good sorceress I know about, and she seemed to hide away from the world._

_We're going to have to work hard to make sure that Rinoa will be able to stay in control of herself. That seems like the only feasible option. I'll do my best to assist her. I hope she takes this seriously._

Squall was lost in thought for a few moments. The vibrations of his cell phone interrupted his thoughts. He reached for the phone from where it lay on his desk to answer the call.

"Squall speaking."

Squall waited a moment for the other person to speak. He could hear muffled sounds of Raijin talking in the background and what could possibly be the crashing sound of ocean waves.

"Hi Squall. How are you doing?" came Seifer's tinny voice through the phone. "Cid told me that your first sorceress knight training was coming up. I thought I'd call and wish you guys some luck."

Squall was surprised that Seifer called and was being friendly. Cid had prompted it, but it still was a kind gesture.

"I thought I'd quickly give you the benefits of my tragic sorceress experience. Cid thought that'd be helpful. Let's see here. Um, I think your bond with Rinoa will end up getting stronger as her powers grow. It did with me at least. So you might want to watch out for THAT. Try to stay in control of yourself as much as possible. You'll need to be strong and keep a clear head, or she'll totally have you by the balls."

"Seifer, I don't like your implication that Rinoa would be anything at all like Ultimecia in how she treats people. Even though she absorbed sorceress powers, she's still Rinoa."

"Yea... the thing is, you're talking about the soft and sweet little Rinoa that we both know and love. The Rinoa before she absorbed Ultimecia's power."

Squall's muscles started to tense up and his teeth started to grind.

"I mean," Seifer continued, "she's so opinionated and slightly goofy, yet sweet and insecure at the same time. I don't even know how she's going to react to being able to strongly direct herself and others. She's been used to being kicked around by her uncaring overbearing father her whole life. You don't know what she's going to turn into when she becomes powerful. Maybe she has a list of grudges she's going to unleash some freaking sorcery on. You just don't KNOW yet Squall."

"Rinoa would never do that!"

"Okay, okay Squall. I guess it's YOUR job to make sure that doesn't happen. So as I called to say, GOOD LUCK. You're a very capable SeeD, and I'm sure you'll do a better job than anybody else, but just remember that it's a hard job. I know you can do it."

Squall let out a breath. This call from Seifer had been an odd mixture of warnings, insults, and compliments. It was a change from the normal Seifer, who would just stick to insults and not include the warnings or compliments.

A few brief moments went by before Seifer continued in a very sincere sounding tone. "And speaking of doing it. I noticed in the news that Timber has yet to be liberated. But on a more personal note, have YOU liberated timber yet Puberty Boy?"

And with that remark, Squall had reached his limit of Seifer Almasy for the week. His hand swiftly moved to end the call without speaking, and he tossed his cell phone back onto his desk where it clattered noisily before becoming still again. He grabbed his forehead and sighed.

* * *

The day of their first sorceress knight training finally came. The morning was brisk and cool. A mist hung low in the sky chilling the air. Later the sun's rays would burn through the chill and damp, but it would take a while for that to happen.

Rinoa hugged her blue hooded sweatshirt around herself, to keep out the chill, while Angelo playfully ran alongside her every once and a while circling Rinoa before running ahead stopping and coming back. Rinoa's body was full of nervous energy because anxiety had been gnawing at her over the past week. Maybe exercising would help with the nervousness, but she was afraid that she'd gotten out of shape after the defeat of Ultimecia. She hadn't gotten much exercise since then.

But she had followed the advice set out in the email, so she was dressed and ready to work-out. Now if she could just find Field C. She had been to the fields on rare occasions, but usually she had just followed Selphie or Zell from the dorms out there, and she had not paid attention as to which field was which. She looked down at Angelo as if he would know where to go.

_Is this the right field here? I should have probably asked Squall to walk me there. Wait, HE should have OFFERED to walk me there!_

As she crested a hill she saw a person on the horizon.

_Squall! Oh good! I must have found the right place!_

She could see that Squall had arrived earlier and was already in the process of exercising. The sun had risen in the eastern sky a couple of hours before and Squall was illuminated in the soft and misty morning sunlight.

Rinoa could smell the fresh grass and see the dew that was soaking into her shoes as she traipsed across Field C to the opposite end. Squall either knew that she would want privacy or he didn't want the news of the sorceress knight training to be broadcast to all of Garden. He had chosen the training area that was most hidden from the school. The area they were in was obscured by a copse of leafy trees.

_This would be a beautiful place for a picnic. I wish I had a basket full of blueberry muffins and sweet pastries and some hot tea. We could eat breakfast out here all alone on a picnic blanket. And it'd be kinda cold, so we could sorta cuddle up under that blanket. Now that would be way more fun than exercising this early in the morning! Mmmm... I wish I had a muffin. I'm so hungry..._

Rinoa managed to get her wandering thoughts under control as she walked up to Squall. She saw that his leather jacket was draped over a log, and instead of his usual clothes he was wearing track pants, a t-shirt, and well worn sneakers. Her thoughts upon seeing Squall exercising once again wandered back to cuddling. She wanted to sneak up and throw her arms around him. His back was turned towards her as she approached, and the closer she walked the more she was able to hear what he was muttering under his breath. Since he was doing squats she could hear only a few words as he would speak louder when he came up out of his crouching position.

"Liberating... TIMBER! Seifer... ALMASY!" he grunted angrily.

"What about Seifer and liberating Timber?" Rinoa asked curiously as she came up behind Squall.

Squall was red from exercise, but upon turning and seeing Rinoa he turned a couple more shades darker.

"Nothing Rinoa. Just thinking about some things that need to be taken care of as commander," Squall stumbled while trying to appear composed.

"I had a bit of trouble finding this field. Maybe I should have come out here with you..." she hinted.

"I've already been out here for an hour exercising. The workout we're going to do together is calibrated for your abilities and not mine."

"Oh... okay, Squall," Rinoa stuttered while feeling like she was completely weak. "Well, I'm not the most athletic person... but I'm going to try." The way she ended the sentence sounded more like a question than a statement.

"I scheduled us to start our training for a half hour before Edea arrives. I am going to help you with your physical abilities and Edea is going to help you with your magical abilities."

"Oh okay, I don't know how great I'm going to be this early in the morning," Rinoa said quietly.

"Rinoa, it's 8 am."

"Yea, I know, 8 am," she said while shrugging her shoulders at him.

"That's not early."

"Yes it is."

Squall looked down at the ground and put his palm up to his face. He decided the first sorceress knight training wouldn't go well if it started with them fighting each other. He checked his watch and brushed his hair off his forehead before continuing.

"Okay, well let's get started here. The itinerary states that the next 15 minutes should be spent running, so let's begin."

Rinoa let out a breath and started jogging lightly across the field with Squall beside her. Squall's jog quickly became a brisk run and he took off into the distance. A few minutes later he turned to see that Rinoa was far behind. He turned to run back to her.

"Rinoa, try to go faster."

"I AM TRYING!" she snapped at him.

Her light jog then became a walk as she was trying to catch her breath. Squall started running in place next to her so she wouldn't be left behind again.

"Rinoa, if you want to get better stamina, you're going to have to push yourself."

"I KNOW!" she yelled breathily.

 _This isn't working very well_ , Squall thought irritably. _I'm going to have to make this work-out even lighter for her._

"Okay, well how about you jog lightly and speed walk when needed. Let's just go in circles around this field for the next 10 minutes or so, okay?"

"Sure Squall, okay."

She tried to jog again, but her foot slipped in the mud and she fell on her knees awkwardly.

"Ouch!" she yelped.

"Just get up and walk it off," he said.

 _Squall Leonhart, gym instructor. This is kinda weird, and a lot less cuddly than I was hoping for._ Rinoa thought dejectedly.

Rinoa nodded her head while trying to blink back tears as she got to her feet. Over the next 10 minutes Squall lapped her three times. She flopped down on the ground as Angelo ran around her.

"I'm so tired!" she whined. "Angelo run for me!" Angelo barked and raced around her. He was having much more fun than his human friends.

Squall looked over saw that she'd gotten surprisingly worn out by the light exercise, so he said that they should move on. She was filled with relief when he decided they had officially done enough 'running' for the morning.

"Okay next up on the schedule: strength training," Squall stated while jogging closer to her. "Do you know what a squat is?"

"YES!"

"Have you ever done one?"

"NO!"

Squall was getting a bit scared of how upset Rinoa was getting. He decided he needed to be extra careful with her this morning.

"Okay. So to do a squat you position yourself with your feet slightly more than shoulder width apart, like so." Squall demonstrated by widening his stance. "This is your starting position."

Rinoa got to her feet and tried to listen but she was hungry, tired, and she was getting annoyed.

"Rinoa, you need to do this correctly or you can hurt yourself," Squall said with concern.

Rinoa paid closer attention as Squall dipped down and came back up. It seemed easy enough.

"Now I want you to do five in a row to start out with."

Rinoa went down once in the same way that Squall did.

"Great, now come up out of the squat slowly."

She started to stand up, but her legs were starting to get fatigued.

"Okay, now just do four more Rinoa."

Rinoa attempted four more, but by the fifth squat she only went down halfway. She was so tired her legs gave out and she fell on her butt in the damp grass. She could see Squall trying to suppress a smile, but to his credit he didn't laugh. He came over and reached down his hand to pull Rinoa up to a standing position. She was sad to see that her baby blue exercise shorts now had a grass stain and big wet spot on her butt.

"Now we're going to do something to improve upper body strength."

Rinoa noticed that Squall had completely slipped into instructor mode. He'd been asked to be a guest instructor a few times for classes that focused on different weapons types, as he was the only current SeeD who was a gunblade specialist. Apparently he fell into that sort of role easily.

"I want you to do 20 push-ups."

Squall went down on the ground and demonstrated a military style push-up. "You begin from this position, with your arms tucked close to your body. You must go all the way up and down in order for the push-up to be effective. Actually, that's probably too advanced for you. Why don't you try a regular push-up. Keep your arms out to the sides."

Rinoa went down on her knees and pushed herself up into the start-up position with her toes. She did 8 push-ups fairly well, but her arms started to shake after that. By the 12th push-up she just hovered there not able to push the weight of her body back into the starting position. She held herself there for a few seconds before falling on her chest with a painful thump and some wet grass getting stuck to her face.

"Omph..." she breathed while trying to pick the blades of grass off her face.

"Okay, don't be discouraged, muscles can build up quickly with discipline."

 _Muscles can be lost quickly without proper discipline too_ , he thought sadly.

"Let's try this instead." Squall again went down on his knees, but instead of getting on the tips of his toes, he used his knees as a pivot point and demonstrated a modified push-up.

 _This morning hasn't started very well, but at least I got to see Squall doing push-ups girly style._ Rinoa thought to herself.

Rinoa bit her lip as she started from the modified position and was able to do 20 push-ups fairly easily. For the first time during exercises that morning, she began to smile. When she was done she sat up in the grass and faced Squall.

He sat down across from her. Despite her recent smile, she had seemed unusually cranky and fatigued that morning. He recalled his earlier conversation with Seifer about how Rinoa's personality might change as her powers grew. That thought scared him, and he hoped her attitude was caused by something mundane and non-magical.

"Rinoa, have you had breakfast yet?" Squall said in a tone that Rinoa interpreted as condescending.

 _YOU'RE NOT MY FATHER!_ She thought angrily.

"No! I didn't have time! I came here right after getting up," she exclaimed defensively.

"Breakfast is important. If you want your body to perform well, you need to fuel it with healthy food," Squall lectured. "Whole grains paired with protein can..."

 _Great, now he's switched to being a health class instructor,_ Rinoa thought with increasing irritation.

"Okay, I know! I know! You can tell me about nutrition later. I was just running late this morning."

Squall was getting worried by her erratic behavior. He didn't think he was asking her to do anything hard. She needed to take this seriously, her life depended on it. He'd gone out of his way to make the first session very light. Rinoa was usually so sweet, and he was getting a little bit scared of her strange behavior. He decided that he didn't want to push her further for the time being, so he remained quiet. After a minute he realized that they hadn't stretched yet. He timidly ventured to speak.

"Okay, now don't get alarmed, but you're probably going to be sore tomorrow."

"Oh you don't have to tell me Squall. I'm sore right now!"

She angrily flipped some of her sweaty hair behind her shoulders.

"Let's do a few stretches here to help ease the soreness. And do them GENTLY, you don't want to injure yourself."

He showed her how to stretch out her arms and neck and then he showed her to make a wide V with her legs while seated in the grass. They mirrored each other.

"Okay, now gently lean forward and try to reach for my hand. Don't make any sudden movements in the stretch."

Rinoa was pleased that she was able to stretch out and easily grab Squall's hands.

"Now hold that for 30 seconds while your hamstrings stretch and loosen."

Rinoa was so happy that she didn't notice she was holding Squall's hands. Once she realized she immediately began to blush, so she lowered her head so he wouldn't notice.

_What is the matter with me? I'm angry one minute and now I'm acting like a little school girl! Oh, I'm getting all hot and really embarrassed here. I hope I don't start thinking of Squall in the shower again! Don't think of Squall in the shower! Don't think of Squall in the shower! Yuck, is my hand getting all sweaty? How many seconds have we been stretching like this? I think I've stopped time or something!_

Seemingly out of nowhere, Squall started thinking of that awkward moment last week when he was afraid Rinoa and Selphie were going to barge into his apartment when he was getting in the shower. He felt a wave of embarrassment again. He abruptly let go of Rinoa's hands, and the hot embarrassment immediately went away like it had never been there at all.

"Okay, well I guess that's enough physical exercise this morning! Why don't we just sit here in the shade until Edea arrives, she should be here soon. Very soon. Very, very soon," Squall stated while narrowing his eyes and turning to look at something off in the distance.

Neither of them looked at each other while they waited. Rinoa clutched at her stomach in hunger.

It wasn't long before they saw Edea walking towards them in her usual simple black dress. She was so elegant and graceful, it nearly seemed like she was floating over the fields.

Squall and Rinoa got to their feet to greet her. Rinoa brushed off her damp and muddy hand before waving politely at Edea.

"Hello, thanks for coming out to help us," Rinoa said while smiling at her.

Squall silently nodded along in agreement while crossing his arms across his chest defensively. He took a few steps back and let Edea lecture Rinoa about the basics of sorceresses and magic. He knew he should be paying more attention, but the thought of Edea using magic made him uncomfortable. Sometimes he even had a phantom pain in his chest from where her ice shard struck him on that parade float. He hadn't told anybody, but it was a reoccurring nightmare of his. Many moments from the war plagued his dreams.

 _It's not her fault! Don't hold it against her. Matron was being controlled by Ultimecia!_ He tried to reassure himself, but it didn't calm the visceral reaction in his body. His fight-or-flight response wanted to react. It took a lot of willpower to suppress it. He tried to appear calm and even quietly bored.

When Edea was finally done lecturing Rinoa, Squall started to pay attention again.

"Rinoa now that you are a sorceress you don't need GFs to use magic. Have you tried magic without a GF equiped?" Edea asked.

"No, I didn't think to try that."

"Unjunction your GFs first and then we'll try doing some magic. Squall could you come over here for a moment?"

Angelo ran happily at Squall while he walked towards Edea and Rinoa. The dog was jumping up and getting in the way.

"Squall, please stand over here," Edea said.

"Okay."

Angelo kept trying to play.

"Over here," Edea repeated.

"Okay."

Angelo jumped up, and Squall's professional demeanor started to get ruffled. He had switched from being the instructor to being the shy student with Edea around.

"Stand..." Edea started again. "Squall, stand..."

"SIT!" Rinoa yelled sternly while putting her hands on her hips.

Both Squall and Angelo immediately sat down in the grass and looked towards Rinoa.

"Oh, I didn't mean..." Rinoa put covered her mouth with her hand while giggling. "I didn't mean you Squall."

"Okay," Squall said while his face turned dark red. He got back up to his feet while Angelo stayed seated.

Edea took a deep breath and gently took hold of Squall's shoulder and positioned him to stand directly in front of Rinoa.

"Now Rinoa, try casting a sleep spell," she said.

"Um, I don't know what to do. How would I even do that without GFs and stocked magic? How does that even work?" Rinoa questioned Edea.

"Close your eyes and focus. What did a sleep spell feel like when you cast it before? Grab onto the feeling and emotion of Squall falling asleep. Project that onto Squall."

Rinoa concentrated and closed her eyes. She saw Squall falling asleep in her mind and tried to nervously push that feeling onto him. After a moment Rinoa slightly opened her eyes expecting Squall to be asleep. Squall stood before her yawning and looking bored.

Squall looked at Rinoa and saw disappointment glistening in her big brown eyes.

"I think I do feel a little sleepy," he said.

"Well, I didn't expect you to get it right the first time. It will take practice. It is a skill that is learned. The magic is innate inside you, but you still need to be able to tap into that power." Edea continued expounding on her lecture. "Let's try another spell. Why don't you try another status effect spell. Try zombie."

Rinoa closed her eyes and thought of Squall as a zombie. She began to think that maybe he wouldn't even change that much. With this thought she slightly giggled. The humor eased some of her tension.

_Okay Rinoa focus. Squall is a walking dead green monster._

With all her concentration she focused on Squall and projected her thoughts. She looked up and Squall was still Squall, not a zombie at all, but he was leaning forward in a defensive stance though.

_Well he does look slightly green._

Rinoa got excited when she watched Squall's face became even greener. He then fell to his knees while clutching his stomach and gagging. They all waited a moment for the gagging to stop.

Edea stepped forward to assess the situation. Squall cast esuna to heal himself hoping it would make him feel better.

"That felt really weird," Squall said after a minute.

"Well, I think that you get the general idea." Edea said while waving her hand in the air. "Please practice these techniques with Squall so that next week we can add additional techniques."

Edea bid them farewell and strode back towards Garden in the strengthening daylight. Rinoa looked at her feet while shifting her weight awkwardly for a minute, unsure of what to do or say next. Squall was quiet. His thoughts were his own, as they usually were.

"That was interesting," Rinoa said, trying to start a conversation.

"I'm sure it will be easier with practice," Squall replied flatly.

While Squall was speaking Rinoa felt something brush her shoulder. She looked over and saw a large fat hairy spider clinging to her shirt.

"Spider!" Rinoa screamed.

She immediately reacted without thinking. An intense burst of wind exploded out from herself and she got knocked forcefully to the ground. She had just attacked herself with an aero spell. On the bright side the spider was no longer on her shoulder. Although it could be anywhere.

"Is it gone?" Rinoa asked. Her hooded sweatshirt was halfway blown off her shoulders and her hair was a mess.

"Are you okay?" Squall bent down and put an arm around her while she was still shaking from fear and shock.

"Where's the spider Leonhart? And you better not say in my hair."

Squall looked through Rinoa's dark tangled hair and didn't see any spiders.

"I don't see a spider in your hair," Squall replied. "Why don't we stop our training for today?"

Rinoa nodded her head in agreement, glad to have the first training session be officially over. She was hungry, tired, and scared of her sorceress powers. She wanted Squall to switch off his instructor mode and just turn back into that good looking guy that she first met a military dance. So many things in her life had changed since that night. So many overwhelming things.

Squall walked over to the log where he had hung his leather coat and pulled out an energy bar from the pocket. He gathered up his jacket and water bottle before walking over to where Rinoa was still seated on the ground in thought. He offered his hand and helped Rinoa up to her feet. He placed the energy bar into her hands for her to eat and offered her a sip from his water bottle.

"Good job. You figured out how to use magic naturally today. That's progress. We'll continue to work on this together. Just don't forget to eat breakfast next time." He awkwardly patted her on the shoulder.

Although Rinoa was still shaken, she smiled and nodded at him. As she began to nibble on the energy bar she started to feel better. She immediately felt less cranky and more energized.

"Um, thanks Squall. I'll remember to eat something first."

Squall nodded while wisely saying nothing. He took his water bottle back and took a long drink from it. They both started to walk back towards Garden with Angelo happily running around them. Rinoa was starting to feel a little bit relieved, but Squall started to worry even more that Rinoa was not taking the training seriously enough.


	9. Chapter 9

Warm afternoon sunlight illuminated the walls of the empty corridor, casting soft shadows all around. The architecture of Balamb Garden had an artistic openness that always allowed for outside light to spill through the structure from windows high above. The serene beauty and peacefulness of its design seemed to be in contradiction to the fact that it was a school that trained youth to kill for money, but none of those things were going through Squall's head as he quietly slipped down the corridor to Rinoa's room.

Meticulous professional that he was, he made sure nobody was around to see what he was doing. It was an ideal time because most students were still in classes or training, and he knew for sure that Rinoa would not be there.

He planned this little side 'mission' to occur at the same time that Rinoa and Selphie had decided to use his kitchen to bake cookies. He had made sure that Selphie was free from her usual duties and Rinoa had been aching to learn to bake for a week or so. He would bet that they'd be in his kitchen much longer than he needed them to be. The key card system was monitored, and he waited in his office until he saw that Rinoa had accessed his apartment before stealthily sneaking towards her door. He'd be in and out before anybody noticed.

Rinoa's door beeped as his gloved hand swiped the lock. Being the commander had some perks as he had access to a master key to all the locks in Garden. Of course he'd never abuse that power, but he felt that he needed to do some investigating.

After walking through her doorway, he quickly and quietly shut her door and took an introductory look around. Her room was always a bit disorganized when he'd seen it before, but it was a complete mess this time. He felt guilty that Rinoa probably wouldn't like him seeing her room like this.

 _She can't get mad at me if she doesn't find out_ , he thought while trying to justify his actions to himself.

Most Garden raised SeeDs were very good at justifying their actions to their ideas of right and wrong. Somehow that attitude was part of their training. Most weren't even aware that they did it anymore. Rinoa's constant pushing and questioning had awakened Squall's dormant conscience, and it had been making him uncomfortable. Sure he was invading her privacy, but it was FOR her sake. He was doing it because he CARED. It was better he did it than some stranger. If a stranger did it, then that would definitely be wrong. His guilty conscience was slightly alleviated while he stepped further into her room and did a brief look around and mentally assessed the situation.

_Rinoa is a new sorceress. I'm her knight. She's been acting strangely recently. I have to find some explanation._

Squall wouldn't tell anyone but he was increasingly worried about Rinoa. It was his job to find out what the cause was and to help her through it. He didn't need to discuss this with her until he'd gathered enough information. He didn't want to make her worried, and he was worried enough for two people anyway.

His eyes took in the surroundings. A bed was in the corner with a big fluffy pink comforter thrown on top of it. Her closet door was halfway open with more clutter spilling out. Clothes, books, and dog toys were scattered across her floor. Her desk had more books and notebooks stacked up on it. Photos were pinned up on a corkboard above her desk. Squall desperately wanted to straighten up her room, but he couldn't let her know that anybody had been in there. As he searched the room, he constantly ignored his compulsions to straighten up and instead glanced around to decide where to start looking.

The bed was unkempt and covered in pink blankets and stuffed animals. He got on his hands and knees and peered under her bed. It was dark, but it mostly appeared to be more shoes and dog toys. He reached his arm back under there, but he didn't find anything else.

There were snacks around her mini-fridge. He opened it to take a look inside. Everything seemed normal, just regular food and drinks. Crumbs were on the floor and an empty bottle of juice or two. Nothing unusual.

Nothing was out of the ordinary in her bathroom. Except there were a few yellow rubber chocobos sitting on the sink. There also was a bottle of bubble bath with pictures of happy and clean cartoon moogles on it.

_Okay, I'm learning that Rinoa has similar bathing habits to a five year old._

He briefly went through her closet, it was mostly clothes and shoes.

Her dresser was just more clothes, although one drawer seemed to be filled with lotions, jewelry, make-up, and other girly things rolling around in it. Half of the things he wasn't even sure what they were. The fresh scent of lilac filled his nostrils as he looked through the drawers.

_Rinoa sure has a lot of clothes even though I usually only see her in the same thing every day. Well, she does look pretty good in that blue sweater thing. I wish she'd lose those black shorts under jean skirt though._

Squall sighed and shut her dresser drawers while looking down at his own attire. Black pants, black boots, fur collared leather jacket. It was nearly the only thing he wore when he wasn't in his SeeD uniform. That leather jacket was practically a part of himself. He'd even heard Selphie laughing the other day that he probably slept and showered in it.

 _If you have a good look, why change it?_ he thought defensively with his arms crossed.

He absent-mindedly nudged a pile of clothes on the floor with one of his polished black boots trying to get an idea of where to look next. A dog toy was half obscured under a small piece of flimsy pink material. His mind recoiled in horror as he realized that the flimsy pink material was a pair of underpants.

_Okay, too far! I'm not looking there!_

His guilt was making him get hot and nervous. He walked across Rinoa's room and flung off his leather jacket onto her desk chair while ruffling up his hair with his hand.

_I know, I'll look through her desk. Nothing too personal here, no underpants, probably._

Her desk was covered in books and notebooks. The stacked books were mostly dealing with various aspects of the Sorceress Wars. He already knew that she was researching the wars and sorceresses in general. He needed NEW information. Squall noticed an open pink notebook with notes scribbled in her curving feminine handwriting. He thought there would be notes about sorceresses, but there weren't. All the scribbling seemed to be related to cats and how to care for them. Little doodles of cats, hearts, and shooting stars were adorning the margins of her notes.

_I'm surprised she doesn't have Mrs. Rinoa Leonhart scribbled all over this thing._

He curiously picked up the notebook and thumbed through it to see if it did anywhere, anywhere at all. It didn't.

_Whatever._

At the bottom of the stack of sorceress books, Squall noticed a book about pets. He reached out for it and pulled it out. While flipping through it he noticed that while some of her bookmarks were in pages related to dogs, most of the bookmarks were placed in pages related to cat care. His eyes lingered on a few photos of cute kittens.

_Weird. I thought Rinoa was more of a dog person. Well I guess I'm learning something new today, even if it doesn't seem helpful to my mission._

He carefully put the book back where he found it. He made sure that it was even left askew underneath the sorceress books, even though everything inside him screamed to fix it into a neat stack.

 _Okay, the only thing I've learned from this mission is that Rinoa maybe likes cats and she likes taking bubble baths with floating rubber chocobos. Real helpful Leonhart! Mission success!_ he thought sarcastically to himself while running his hand through his hair.

He roughly grabbed his leather jacket in frustration, and took one last look at her room before leaving. He felt that this invasion of privacy hadn't even helped him figure out what was going on. Now he had an extra heaping of guilt on top of his worries.

* * *

While Squall was searching Rinoa's room, Rinoa and Selphie were in the process of making Squall's pristine kitchen look a lot less pristine. Flour, eggshells, and baking soda littered his previously immaculate countertops. Some of the ingredients were even scattered across the floor.

"Selphie, am I doing this right?"

Rinoa had to talk loudly for Selphie to hear her over the sound of pop music that was blasting from Selphie's portable music player. The music was somewhat familiar to Rinoa, but she didn't know the words. Selphie knew the lyrics though, and she was singing along loudly with her eyes closed. It took Rinoa a few moments to attract Selphie's attention and to ask the question again.

"Yea, just make sure the measure is level before dumping it in the bowl," Selphie replied loudly while sliding around Squall's smooth kitchen floor in her yellow socks and lip-synching into a wooden spoon as she continued to dance.

Rinoa leveled off the teaspoon of baking soda before adding it to the dry ingredients that were in a big pink mixing bowl. The ingredients, bakeware, and other supplies had been previously purchased by Rinoa in anticipation of this day. Squall's apartment only had basic cookware, so he was going to be surprised to find out that he was the proud new owner of a set of pink mixing bowls.

"We're baking BABY!" Selphie sang while throwing her arms around Rinoa from behind causing the chocolates chips that she was holding to cascade down, scattering onto the counter and floor.

"Careful Selphie! You're spilling stuff on the floor, Squall's going to get mad."

"Oh Rinoa, he won't be angry. He'll be so HAPPY to have fresh baked chocolate chip cookies!"

Selphie smiled at Rinoa while mixing the wet ingredients in another pink bowl with her wooden spoon. As one song finished and another began Selphie suddenly stopped dancing and singing. She clapped her hands together more loudly than necessary which caused an explosion of flour to fly through the air. Rinoa sneezed.

"Quistis! We should have invited Quistis, she'd like this." Selphie reached into her back pocket to pull out her cell phone. Within a few seconds she had Quistis on the line.

"Quistis, I'm in Squall's apartment right now baking cookies, wanna come over?" There was a long pause. "He's not here, but he KNOWS we're here. It's okay... " Selphie was quiet for a minute. " Well, tell Xu you can help her with that later... Well... just bring Xu along with then! Okay, see you in a little bit."

Over the music, Rinoa had only heard Selphie's end of the conversation, but she hadn't liked what she'd heard.

"Selphie, I don't think Squall would want any more people in his apartment. He seemed kinda reluctant to even let me be in here when he's not around..." Rinoa said apprehensively.

Selphie ignored Rinoa's concerns and kept instructing her in how to make cookie dough. She pointed to both of the mixing bowls before continuing.

"Yea Rinoa, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and then just fold the chocolate chips into the dough!"

"Selphie are you even listening to me?" Rinoa asked.

"You wanted my help, and I'm helping you!" Selphie said. "You need to RELAX!"

"I'm am relaxed," Rinoa said through gritted teeth.

Rinoa decided that arguing with her was useless, so she kept quiet. When she had finally mixed all the chocolate chips into the cookie dough, there was a knock at the door. Rinoa wiped her hands on her apron and went to answer the door with Selphie.

Quistis and Xu were at the door waiting to be let in.

"Come right on in guys! Make yourselves at home! Mi casa es su casa!" Selphie said cheerily, quickly taking on the role of party host, even though this wasn't a party and it wasn't her place to host.

"Selphie this is Squall's place, not yours!" Rinoa said defensively.

Quistis and Xu stepped into Squall's apartment. Rinoa noticed that Xu's boots left a small trail of dirt.

"Hey guys, I think Squall wants people to take off their shoes when they come inside, so if you could please... take off your shoes... he doesn't like... dirt... please..." Rinoa trailed off.

They reluctantly took off their shoes and placed them near the entrance.

"Wow, the commander's place is so much nicer than mine. He sure gets a lot of perks, even though he's younger than so many of the other SeeDs" Xu said scornfully. "Quistis, you do a lot of work, your place should be at least as big. This is such a nice apartment, and he's barely filled it up with anything. It's wasted on him."

Quistis said nothing while peering around at Squall's apartment. She'd always liked observing him and trying to predict his tastes and actions. After a moment she nodded her head, apparently it was pretty much what she had imagined it would be like.

Selphie was about to close the front door when she saw Zell and the library girl walking by in the corridor.

"Hey library girl! Wanna join the cookie party?" Selphie exclaimed.

"Cookies?" Zell asked with a big grin on his face.

"Yea Zell, moist and delicious chocolate chip cookies! Warm and sweet, fresh from the oven..."

Zell started to walk into Squall's apartment with the library girl. Selphie abruptly stopped Zell and pushed him out the door while pulling the library girl inside.

"NO BOYS! This is a girl's cookie party Zell!"

"Whaaaaa?"

Zell wasn't able to finish his exclamation because Selphie had already shut the door in his face. The library girl stood awkwardly inside Squall's apartment. She really didn't know anybody there very well, and she had wanted to be with Zell that afternoon. But Selphie's enthusiasm was scary, so she didn't object. She flung off her shoes when she noticed everybody was barefoot or in socks. She didn't want to stand out as being different.

"Okay everybody! Into the kitchen," Selphie yelled. "I was just showing Rinoa how to bake cookies. She's NEVER EVER done this before. She just has to drop the dough on the cookie sheets, and then we'll have cookies in 10 minutes flat."

They all crowded into Squall's kitchen while Rinoa continued to drop the cookie dough onto the sheets before putting them in the oven and setting the timer.

"Oh Rinoa, this is your first time baking cookies? So you're a cookie-baking virgin then?" Xu asked.

"Huh?" Rinoa replied. She'd hoped that she had misheard what Xu had said over the sound of Selphie's loud and bubbly music.

"Well, at least you're some type of virgin still," Xu continued.

"What are you talking about?!" Rinoa said angrily.

"Oh Rinoa, just calm down. She's just teasing you. Maybe you don't know because your only friends were Watts and Zone, but it's what GIRLS do at parties. We say catty things and we eat junk food. I mean, personally I wouldn't tease you about sleeping with Seifer, heaven knows you've suffered enough by just being his girlfriend, but that's just me. Its best to just respond with something equally nasty and move on. Just call her a 'stupid gossiping cow' and then we can all be friends again. Oh wait, maybe calling her a 'stupid and UGLY gossiping cow' would be better," Selphie said quickly while smiling.

"Why would anybody think that I slept with Seifer!? Who started that rumor?!" Rinoa yelled.

"Seifer," everybody but the library girl said in unison. They all stood around and looked at each other to confirm. Apparently this was common 'knowledge' amongst gossipers at Garden.

"Ami, have you heard this rumor too?" Rinoa asked the library girl.

"Um... I've heard some people whispering something like that in the library," the library girl responded timidly. Rinoa could tell from the way that Ami averted her eyes that she was almost as embarrassed as Rinoa about the whole situation.

_Seifer is Seifer, but Selphie and Quistis are supposed to be my friends! How could they gossip about me like that? And what is with Xu's attitude towards me and Squall!?_

Rinoa looked like she was about to die. Her pale face had turned an enraged shade of red. Her fury was burning in her veins. She wished her sorceress powers were more developed, she wanted to hurt something or someone, but she'd need help to do it. Visions of destruction danced behind her eyes as she tightly gripped her wooden spoon.

The library girl was feeling awkward enough, but she decided that she wanted to sneak away while everybody was upsetting Rinoa. She had snuck up to the door to let herself quietly out when she was stopped by the commander coming home at the same time. Both of their faces were stunned at seeing one another, but she was quicker to respond. She grabbed her shoes and ran down the corridor to get away from Selphie's improvised cookie party.

Squall looked around his apartment in confusion. Instead of going back to his office, he'd felt some strange tingling sensation pulling him to his apartment. He decided he'd see what was going on. Looking down at the floor he saw a sloppy pile of different shoes and dirt marks over his floor and he heard loud music and girlish fighting in his kitchen. The sweet smell of cookies filled his entire apartment.

He proceeded with caution.

"I did NOT sleep with Seifer!" Rinoa yelled. "I can't believe you guys believe him over me! Boys lie about stuff like that..."

"Sure Rinoa, we understand," Xu said. "We understand you don't want to piss off your new boyfriend, especially now that he's the commander and can bend rules for you whenever he wants. Garden shouldn't even be harboring a sorceress. It's a danger to us all."

Squall continued to creep towards the kitchen. As he peered around the corner he saw Rinoa in an apron covered in flour dust while holding a wooden spoon like a weapon and staring Xu down with a red and angry face. She looked like she wanted to fry Xu with a bolt of lightning. Selphie was busy placing decorative napkins down on his dining table and ignoring their fight while Quistis was inspecting the contents of Squall's fridge, pantry, and drawers. The fight felt like it was going to continue to get uglier, but the tension was slightly broken when the oven timer went off. Rinoa quickly went to remove the cookies from the oven. While her back was turned to remove the warm cookies to a cooling rack with a spatula, a little tear escaped down her cheek.

Squall felt a rush of different emotions boiling in the pit of his stomach. Those emotions felt dangerous, and they needed to be dealt with. He figured he should end whatever was going on right away.

"What's going on here?" he said calmly while stepping into view.

Nothing killed a party's atmosphere quicker than Squall Leonhart.

Everybody in the kitchen was startled. They hadn't noticed him sneak into his own apartment. They'd been too distracted by the fighting. Rinoa didn't turn around, instead she finished her task of taking the cookies off the cookie sheets.

Xu opened her mouth to speak, but she quickly shut it.

"We were just leaving," Quistis said.

"We were just leaving, right after we tasted a cookie," Selphie corrected her cheerily.

Selphie quickly gathered up three decorative napkins and placed a fresh chocolate chip cookie on each before handing them out and getting ready to vacate Squall's apartment. Squall's stony glare made Quistis and Xu hurry, although Selphie seemed impervious to it. Luckily she did everything quickly, so Squall and Rinoa were soon alone.

Rinoa had stayed with her hands resting on the stovetop while she heard the clatter of Quistis, Xu, and Selphie leaving through the door. Squall went over to Selphie's music player to turn it off.

It had bothered him to hear loud pop music in his own home, but he felt that peace was somewhat restored once the SeeDs had left and it was quiet.

Without speaking Rinoa reached out to her mixing bowl to put another batch of cookies in the oven, but Squall reached out and stopped her.

"What was that all about?"

"I just wanted to make some cookies. So I got Selphie to help, and then the rest snowballed. Sorry about the mess."

She clearly did not want to talk about anything else Squall may have overheard.

"It's okay," Squall said while trying to keep his eyes off the mess of ingredients that had gotten spilled over his previously clean floor.

Rinoa turned back to continue putting cookie dough on the sheets to put in the oven. Squall walked over to the stove and started to help. When the batch was put in the oven, she set the timer for ten minutes again. She sighed and stumbled over to his kitchen table to sit down. She sat down and buried her face in her arms. Squall sat down across from her and said nothing. He was good at that.

Silence completely filled his apartment.

"I don't think I'm making a lot of friends here at Garden," Rinoa said in a muffled voice a few minutes later.

"You have friends here. Selphie is your friend," Squall offered.

"Yea, well, she was supposed to help me with cookies this afternoon, and you saw how well that ended."

"Selphie is just being Selphie," he shrugged.

"Sometimes people's quirks really get annoying," Rinoa said.

Squall started to get uncomfortable, and he pulled his fur collared leather jacket around himself tighter and crossed his arms.

"We all have our issues at Garden. People have different coping mechanisms for the constant stress we have to live with," he said while flexing his strong and callused hands. "Sometimes that comes out in different ways."

Rinoa peeked up from her arms. Her brown eyes were still hidden behind her dark bangs.

"Sorry... I didn't mean to imply that YOU had weird quirks... or that they were annoying... or..."

Squall interrupted her awkward rambling with a shrug before continuing with some awkward rambling of his own.

"And it isn't like Selphie is your only friend... I'm your... uh... hmm... friend?" Squall stumbled.

Tension filled the air. Rinoa wanted Squall to officially be something more than a friend, but she didn't want to force him into saying it. She knew he was anti-social and new to any type of relationship, but this was killing her.

 _Baby steps Rinoa, let him come to YOU. But how long is this going to take? I mean, he was the one that kissed me on that balcony? Why is he so timid now? He's just a scared feral cat, and you have to earn his trust. He'll come to you on his own, you don't want to scare him away. He'll get comfortable and come to you eventually... probably... hopefully... maybe?_ Rinoa thought to herself.

The oven timer went off, and they both went to take out the cookies from the oven, relieved for a distraction from the awkward tension.

"Are you going to offer me a cookie?" Squall said hoping to divert the tone of the conversation to something lighter.

"I haven't even tried one yet, I hope they're okay."

She was secretly happy he asked, but she was also afraid that they wouldn't be good. She'd followed the recipe's instructions, but she'd never baked anything before.

They each took a warm cookie off the hot cookie sheet and tasted them tentatively. The cookies were wonderfully warm and gooey. The chocolaty sweetness melted away some of their stress. Chocolate smeared their fingers as they eagerly started to sample a few more. Rinoa breathed a quiet sigh of relief that at least that aspect of Selphie's cookie 'party' had turned out well.

Late afternoon had turned into early evening by the time they were done baking and cleaning up. After Rinoa had finished with the last batch of cookies, Squall cleaned the dishes, counters, and floors. Rinoa had offered to help, but he seemed particular about getting it as clean as it was before.

They were both covered in flour, chocolate, and cookie dough, but the kitchen finally looked sparkling. Rinoa saw that Squall relaxed after seeing that his apartment was back to the way it was. Angelo had finally woken up from where he was sleeping in Squall's bedroom, and trotted into the kitchen. Luckily they'd been able to get all the chocolate chips of the floor before the dog got a chance to eat them.

Squall looked at the time, and although they had eaten a lot of cookies between the two of them, Squall knew that they both needed to eat a proper dinner.

"Um, Rinoa... I know this is short notice, but would you like to go out to dinner tonight?"

 _There is no way I'm cleaning this kitchen up again today,_ Squall thought to himself.

"Obviously after we've cleaned up a bit. I mean we both need to keep up our strength in order to continue our training. We could just go to the cafeteria if you'd like, but it being dinner time it's going to be crowded." Squall's voice raised a register as Rinoa could visibly tell he was nervous.

_Is this a date? Is he asking me on an official date? Is that why he's nervous?_

Rinoa knew that although Squall was okay eating in groups, but he still preferred quiet and out of the way places. The cafeteria during the dinner hour was not one of those places. But maybe he also wanted to ask her out on a date.

"I'd love to," Rinoa replied. "Just give me thirty minutes to get ready. I'll meet you in the parking lot."

"Make it twenty five and I'll pick you up from your room."

Rinoa left grabbing her shoes, and exited gracefully with Angelo before racing to her room. Twenty-five minutes wasn't a lot of time to get ready for a date if she wanted to shower.

Once Rinoa slammed the door shut to her room, she spent the next fifteen minutes showering to clean up the mess left from cookie baking. When she was done, she hurried out to grab some make-up out of her dresser drawers. Rinoa preferred the natural look, but her 'natural look' still was achieved with a little bit of make-up. After applying a small amount of make-up she started to panic about what to wear because she was still in a towel. She dug frantically through her clothes that were in her closet when she heard a knock at the door.

"Um, just a minute, I'm almost ready!" she called out while standing wet and naked in a towel.

Her eyes settled on a dusty rose dress at the back of her closet. She lunged for it, and decided that it would have to do; she hoped it seemed nice enough. The dress had a scoop neckline, cap sleeves, a flared skirt, and it was fitted at the waist. Classic, and it was better than the damp towel she was wearing at the moment. She quickly slipped into a bra and some underwear before diving headfirst into it.

"Just a second," she yelled through the door.

While struggling to get the dress to lay flat she walked to her door while grabbing her purse. She reached out to the door to let Squall in. In her rush, she pulled the door open suddenly and he nearly fell backwards into her room. He'd been leaning against the door while waiting.

Rinoa let out a little yelp while pushing some of her hair behind her ears.

"Oops, sorry about that! Well, I'm ready. Let's go!"

"Shoes," Squall said.

"Shoes?" Rinoa repeated.

She looked down at looked at her bare feet and wiggled her toes. She stood lost in thought for a moment before running back to grab a matching pair of flats from her closet.

"Okay, now I'm ready," she beamed.

"Fine."

Now that she was somewhat put together for her 'date,' or whatever it technically was, she turned to actually look up at Squall. Rinoa was happy to notice that he actually showered and shaved for this dinner together, as his hair was still slightly wet. He didn't have on his typical leather jacket or his SeeD uniform either, but he was instead wearing a pair of black jeans and a gray shirt underneath a black jacket.

 _You look hot!_ Rinoa thought.

"You look nice." Rinoa said.

"You too. Want to go now?"

Rinoa nodded eagerly while waving goodbye to a sleepy Angelo.

"Bye Angelo! Don't wait up for me!" she called before shutting her door.

* * *

Squall led Rinoa to a waiting car where he got in and drove Rinoa towards Balamb. Rinoa hadn't even thought to ask where Squall was taking her. It took all her mental strength to not ask questions and just allow Squall to lead the way. She was almost mentally screaming at Squall to tell her where he was taking her for dinner. A couple minutes into their drive Rinoa was rewarded as Squall asked Rinoa a question.

"I know this nice out-of-the-way place that serves a nice meal. Is that okay with you?"

_Still not going to tell me the name or location of the restaurant Leonhart?_

"Sounds great," Rinoa said

Squall drove Rinoa past the business district of Balamb as the sun was setting in the west. Squall turned down a street that ran parallel to the shops and restaurants that made up downtown Balamb. A small sign hung in front of a house. The house was well lit inside and in the twilight Rinoa could look through the large front windows. Inside stood about four tables, of which only one was occupied by a single man. Rinoa could see why Squall would prefer a place like this to the hustle and bustle of the few restaurants that she frequented in downtown Balamb. Although the house and interior was old and not updated it gave off a warm cozy feeling.

Squall stopped the car and opened Rinoa's door. As she got out she could now read the small sign which was worn and faded. It said 'Jane's Restaurant.' Underneath in small letters, which Rinoa could barely read in the diminishing light, was printed that it served home cooking in a friendly atmosphere.

She could tell that Squall was familiar with the procedure as he opened the door for Rinoa to the house. He stood back and let Rinoa walk in first. Once he was inside he didn't wait but immediately led Rinoa to one of the empty tables in front of the large bay window.

He motioned for Rinoa to take a seat as he walked behind the chair and pulled out her seat. Rinoa sat and realized nervously that she was on a date.

_When a guy pulls a chair out for you at a restaurant, that's a date, right?_

She blushed deep red and looked down into her lap while she straightened the skirt of her dress. Squall walked over to the front and grabbed two menus and opened one of them before placing it into Rinoa's hands.

"Sorry this place isn't fancy, but I like the food and atmosphere. Maybe you'd like it too."

Rinoa looked into Squall's sincere, yet mostly unreadable face. If she didn't know better she would swear he was apologizing for not taking her to a fancier restaurant. But maybe instead Squall was just sensing her nervousness.

_Is my nervousness making him nervous? His nervousness is making me nervous. Aaaah! I need to calm down._

"No, this place looks great. I'd much rather eat in a place that has good food. What do you recommend?"

Before Squall could answer an older lady that Rinoa assumed was the owner had walked out of a hallway which Rinoa could only assume led to the back of a house and kitchen. In her hands she held a plate of fish with a baked potato, along with some green vegetable that she set in front of a gentleman. She gruffly said enjoy before coming over to Squall and Rinoa.

She came over and briefly said welcome before giving a laundry list of things that she was out of and didn't recommend due to them being not so fresh anymore. Rinoa could see from her faded nametag that her name was Jane.

Jane finished by saying, "I recommend the trout with a baked potato and spinach tonight."

"That sounds good," Squall said while folding his menu.

"And for the lady?"

Rinoa liked fish well enough and really didn't have enough time to decide on anything else without sending Jane away, so she only said, "I'll have the same."

Jane mumbled something like good under her breath before walking away. She returned after a couple of minutes with freshly baked bread that was hot from the oven.

After Jane left Squall resumed the conversation from a few minutes earlier.

"I was going to recommend to let Jane decide. She doesn't have too much, but she does well with what she has. She doesn't have the means or the skills to have a thriving restaurant, but she is a very good cook."

Squall leaned forward and grabbed a piece of piping hot bread, ripping it in half and letting it dissolve in his mouth.

Rinoa tentatively grabbed a piece of bread and put it on her plate. Between mouthfuls of the warm and delicious bread Rinoa started telling Squall about her day. Before long Jane returned with two plates of piled high with food. Very little conversation ensued as Squall and Rinoa were both hungry and dove in. Rinoa didn't know when the last time that she had enjoyed herself this much. She felt good. Squall didn't seem to be angry at her about the misuse of his apartment or maybe he was just placing the blame onto Selphie and the others.

Both Squall and Rinoa were completely full after finishing their dinner.

Jane had come over and handed Squall the bill. Rinoa reached into her purse and pulled out twenty Gil thrusting it at Squall.

"Is this enough to cover my portion or do I owe you more?" Rinoa said.

"This is on me." Squall said and got up, refusing to take Rinoa's money.

He headed over to where Jane sat behind a makeshift counter at the side of the room. On top sat a cash register.

Squall handed Jane an amount and said, "thanks for the meal," before turning and walking back to Rinoa.

Rinoa had picked up her purse and was waiting by the front door to exit.

Squall offered his arm to Rinoa, which she gladly took before exiting the restaurant. The nervousness of earlier in the evening was completely gone and Rinoa was beginning to truly enjoy herself. The ride back to Garden flew by and it seemed all too soon that Squall was walking Rinoa back to her room. She'd been having so much fun that she didn't want it to end.

"Well goodnight," Squall said.

Rinoa was sad, but her face brightened a bit when she thought about a possible goodnight kiss. She stood there defiantly, not turning to dismiss Squall yet. He sensed her attention on his face and didn't turn away either.

"Goodnight Squall," Rinoa said while not turning to go inside.

"Yes, good... night..." he said in an unsure voice.

"Sweet dreams..." she said while smiling like cat.

They stood for a minute doing nothing. The silence went from being slightly awkward to being electrically charged.

_Kiss me! Kiss me! Kiss me!_

She placed her hands behind her back and rocked back and forth in her shoes flirting with him.

Squall ran a hand through his hair before stepping out towards her. Rinoa mirrored his actions. He slowly leaned forward. Rinoa started to get excited, but instead of bending down to give her a kiss or a hug he instead reached out and put his right arm behind her and gave her a big hearty pat on the back. It wasn't even a friendly hug with their hips wide apart, it was a pat on the back! Who does that?

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow morning for our training session. Don't be late. Remember to wake up early enough so that you can have breakfast and be ready to exercise," he said while blushing and looking at the floor with his bangs hanging over his eyes. He turned quickly and left her standing stunned by her door.

_What was that? What was THAT?!_

_Oh, I'll think about that later, I have to go to bed so I'll be able to train well tomorrow..._

Rinoa turned to stumble inside her room with disappointment rolling through her stomach.


	10. Chapter 10

Field C was bathed in the soft glowing light of a perfect morning. The dewdrops sparkled on the fat blades of green grass like tiny gemstones. Squirrels chattered and birds sang joyously throughout the treetops. The smell of wildflowers hung heavily in the air spreading their sweet scent to all who were near. The damp and chilled air was pleasant because the growing sunlight promised to soon burn away the coldness left from the dark night.

Anybody who was lucky enough to be enveloped by this morning's beautiful embrace would certainly be filled with peace and joy. Well, most people would be.

"Stupid Seifer and his stupid liberating Timber joke," Squall said roughly while doing another round of squats.

His hand swiped across his forehead to clear away the sweat that had collected on his brow. The heat of anger and exertion made him remove his hooded sweatshirt to reveal the white t-shirt and Griever pendant underneath. He flung the sweatshirt into the grass beside him as he got down on his knees. The glistening diamonds of dewdrops were unnoticed by Squall as he lowered himself onto his stomach. He tucked his arms in tightly to his body as he began to do military push-ups.

_I'm going to do push-ups until I'm not irritated anymore. So basically, infinity push-ups._

Squall lost track of how many push-ups he'd done, all he noticed was the steady rhythm of his movements and his moderated breathing. The only thing that mattered was building his strength and not thinking about his life. It felt as if time stretched out forever. Regimented military exercises were the entirety of his existence. That's all he'd done before that moment in time and that was all he'd do after. His hands were crushing the sweetly scented wildflowers in the grass, but he was unaware of it.

After what seemed like an eternity of push-ups, he noticed a pair of bare feet that had sauntered up to the grass in front of his face. He finally stopped exercising and rolled onto his back to see who it was. The brightness of the morning shone behind the person's back, making nothing but a dark silhouette. He reached up to shield his eyes and he could tell it was Rinoa peering curiously down at him and smiling. She was wearing the same cream colored mini-dress that he'd first seen her in at the SeeD graduation dance.

_Why is Rinoa wearing a formal dress to train in?_

His confusion quickly turned to embarrassment when he realized he could see up her short dress. His face flushed with shock and he shut his eyes after catching a glimpse of pink underpants.

_Why am I the one feeling guilty? She's the one standing over my face when I'm exercising!_

He immediately pulled up onto his knees in a quick jolt.

"Hello Rinoa," he said huskily while trying to catch his breath. "Why are you wearing a formal dress out here?"

Instead of answering, she just did a little spin around in the grass while smiling and giggling at him. Squall was mesmerized by her movements. She finished by facing Squall once more. She reached down with one arm and pulled him to his feet. She put her hands into his and tried to get him to dance with her on the wet grass while humming a familiar sounding waltz.

_This is really strange, even for Rinoa. Is she losing her mind? Is that what happens to sorceresses?_

Squall started to tense up and worry about Rinoa when he looked up and saw the yellow wings of two chocobos unfurling while racing at the far end of the grassy field. A cactaur was riding the chocobo in the lead, and a moogle was on the back of the chocobo right behind. It seemed that the cactaur was going to win the race. The moogle got angry and flew far away into the sky, leaving a trail of sparkling rainbow colored soap bubbles behind him. The cactaur hopped off of the chocobo and started to do a little victory dance before tripping and falling on its face.

_Um... I think I'm dreaming. I guess that was why I was able to do so many push-ups._

He looked down and saw that he was now wearing his SeeD uniform.

_Definitely dreaming._

He started to relax when he realized the entire scenario was just a dream. He could lighten up a bit. Nobody would know. It was all in his head. He might as well enjoy himself. This was a welcome relief from his nightmares of Ultimecia and time compression. His dreams weren't usually this pleasant, and they were never cute.

_Since I'm dreaming, I'm going to try and relax and act like a normal human being on a date. It'll be practice._

He was still disappointed and embarrassed with himself over the goodnight back pat he'd given Rinoa the day before. The intense disappointment made his stomach sick. His carefully constructed aloof and cold demeanor hid his social awkwardness and inexperience for years, but it was starting to show now that he was spending more time with Rinoa.

 _A pat on the back, what was that!?_ he internally yelled at himself. _I wish I could blame that on the GFs._

 _The GFs made me forget normal dating protocol Rinoa,_ he said while answering an imaginary conversation in his head. _I got confused, but it wasn't my fault._

He decided to stop making mental excuses and lament his previously carefully hidden social clumsiness.

_Things were easier when I could just hide behind my gunblade and hair!_

He was so embarrassed he wanted to grow out his hair even longer and just comb it over his face to hide.

 _Hairstyle subterfuge, it's a common military practice,_ he said in another imaginary conversation with Rinoa.

He shook himself to concentrate on the dream at hand.

_Okay, time for some practice dating._

When he turned back to Rinoa, she was now wearing her normal blue sweater outfit and black boots while smiling at him. She waved lightly and blushed while twirling the toe of her boot in the ground.

_I like her normal clothes, except for those little black shorts under her jean skirt._

Suddenly her black shorts faded away, leaving just her jean skirt and bare legs.

_Nice, but good thing this is just a dream. That jean skirt is maybe too short without them. Oh well. Nobody is here but me._

He reached out and took her hand and started walking along the field with her. She gently was being pulled along with him through the grass while listening to the birds singing. Her wide and hazy smile never faltered while looking up at him.

_Rinoa is never this quiet, I guess this is why this is a dream and not reality._

They continued walking along until they came to group of trees. A big pink blanket was laying out in the shade. Squall looked around to see if there was anything else of interest, but there wasn't.

When he turned back to look at the blanket, he noticed Rinoa was already seated on it. She was beckoning to Squall to join her. She patted the spot in front of her for him to sit. Squall eagerly took a seat on the blanket in front of Rinoa and sat. Beside her on the blanket appeared a basket overflowing with muffins, pastries, and drinks. Two glasses of champagne were already filled and waiting next to them.

Everything looked wonderful, Squall didn't know where to begin. Rinoa smiled and said nothing while picking up a blueberry muffin from the top of the basket. She picked a juicy and sugar encrusted blueberry out of the top of her muffin and popped it into her mouth. Her eyes closed and her nose scrunched up in delicious bliss. Squall decided to get started by reaching out for a champagne glass. He started to raise it to his face when he was startled by something brushing his leg. His arm accidentally jerked and he splashed himself in the eyes.

_My eyes!_

Squall blinked the champagne out of his eyes and looked down and noticed Rinoa was rubbing her bare foot up and down slowly on his thigh. Her eyes were locked on his as he looked up. He froze and swallowed nervously.

_This is a DREAM. What is WRONG with me? I can't even relax in a dream!_

He put the champagne glass down and it seemed to disappear. He ran his hand through his hair, unsure of what to do next.

Rinoa sat up on her knees and moved closer to him so she could sit side-by-side. She leaned her head against his shoulder while continuing to eat happily. After taking a few more bites, she ripped off a piece of her blueberry muffin and offered it to him on the palm of her hand. He leaned in to take a bite, but she pulled it away quickly and nuzzled his nose instead. He held still like a deer in the headlights as she giggled and buried her warm face in his tense neck.

_Okay. Just relax._

Rinoa had pulled back and held out her hand once more. Squall leaned in to take a bite of the blueberry muffin again. This time he was able to eat some of it out of her hand while she petted his hair. She had been giggling when he accidentally bit her thumb.

"OUCH! Squall that really HURT! Be careful!" she yelped. She pulled back her hand and sucked on her thumb with her eyes tearing up.

Squall was taken aback. She hadn't spoken at all before in this dream, and it sounded like the real Rinoa.

All the previous tension he had the in the dream came back to him. He crossed his arms over his chest defensively and sighed while looking down at the soft and fluffy pink picnic blanket dejectedly.

_This blanket looks familiar for some reason._

Rinoa softened to look more dreamlike again, and she motioned sweetly for him to come closer to herself. He stubbornly resisted. She beckoned to him again, but he did nothing. She waited a moment before grabbing him roughly and forcing him to lay down on the blanket with his head pillowed in her lap. He scrambled to push against her like an angry cat, but he eventually gave up as she kept shushing him and petting his hair. Even though it was a dream, he still didn't want to hurt the dream-Rinoa again.

Squall gave in to some of her affections, although they were a little weird. She kept petting his hair like he was a cat. That didn't seem normal, but he wasn't an authority on physical interactions. While worrying about whether or not it was okay to be enjoying himself he looked up through the treetops to see the beautiful blue sky. He took a deep breath to calm himself.

_So she wants to pet me like a cat. Whatever. I'm going to RELAX and try to enjoy the rest of this dream!_

After a few minutes of tension his body had started to relax again as her fingers played with the longer strands of his brown hair. He enjoyed the feeling of Rinoa's warm hand on his face as it came in contact briefly with his cheek. She leaned down and he could feel her lashes slowly brushing against his skin. After a moment, she leaned in, giving him a peck on the cheek. She leisurely pulled back and looked longingly into Squall's blue-gray eyes before she leaned in again and kissed the corner of his mouth lightly. Her face blurred a moment and he could hear her thinking at him.

_Is this pleasant Squall?_

_It's not unpleasant,_ he thought back at her with a small smile while licking his lips and nervously shaking his hair out of his eyes. He looked down at his hands as they fiddled with a blade of grass and he cleared his throat anxiously even though he was communicating in thoughts.

She laughed at him.

 _Now, why don't you try and kiss me for a change? It's okay... You don't have to worry about ME biting... You're going to like me. You're going to..._ He vaguely heard her thoughts but then the rest was indecipherable.

He reached up and played with the ends of her silky dark hair as she smiled encouragingly at him. He sat up and started leaning into her for a small kiss, but as soon as he moved closer to her, she started to fade away and become blurry. Her form dissolved completely, and he fell face forward onto the fluffy pink blanket alone.

 _That was weird..._ Squall started to think as the scene started to fade into nothingness.

The next thing he knew he face down on his pillow in his bedroom. Sunlight was streaming in from his window. He always before woke up when it was still dark out. The sunlight was bright and disorienting. He rubbed his hand over his eyes trying to get rid of the sleepiness before he swept his bangs up over his scarred forehead. A tiny bit of drool was on his face, and he felt like a mess. Usually he woke up much earlier. His strict military style routine was a comforting constant in his life.

He looked over at the time on his clock.

_Oh no, I overslept! Why did that happen?! That never happens!_

He looked down at his pajamas and started to mentally calculate how to get his day back on track.

_I don't have enough time to do my own exercise routine, I'm only going to have enough time to grab breakfast and meet Rinoa out in field C for our training session._

He quickly got out of bed to get dressed, and then continued to his kitchen to scrounge up a healthy breakfast.

* * *

The real Field C was bathed in the harsh light of a typical morning. The dewdrops clung to the blades of green grass, making Squall and Rinoa's shoes wet as they tramped through the field. Squirrels chattered and birds sang off in the distance. The faint smell of wildflowers was floating in the wet and chilly morning air. The dampness was tolerable because the growing sunlight would most likely dry out the cold and wet field eventually, but it wasn't a magical morning like the dream had been. Well, technically since it was sorceress training, it would be a magical morning, just not a beautifully majestic dreamlike one.

As Rinoa exercised she thought back to the strange way that Squall had greeted her this morning. She was surprised to see Squall standing out in the corridor waiting for her when she left her room. He looked out of sorts, but she had been delighted by the gesture. She was going to ask him why he wasn't already exercising on the field, but then she decided to just enjoy the extra attention without over thinking it.

_Not that I'm complaining. It was nice for him to meet me and walk me out to the field._

Although they hadn't spent much time walking together because as soon as Squall was outside he had started lightly jogging. Even though Squall had only been warming up, Rinoa had trouble keeping up with him.

Squall noticed that Rinoa was getting better at lightly jogging as he eventually passed her at a brisk run. The few times they had practiced together were helping her stamina. Her cheeks were flushed pink with exertion, but she had a small proud smile on her face. Her attitude was helped by seeing positive progress, a happy Angelo, and a good breakfast. She could almost see why Squall liked exercising so much as she lost herself in the rhythm of her pounding feet and pumping fists. She was by no means going fast, but she had vastly improved from a couple of weeks ago.

Every time Squall lapped Rinoa on the field her little smile took on a slight tinge of embarrassment. He didn't mean to show off, but he needed to work out a lot harder than she did to keep up his level of physical fitness and he'd slept in accidentally and needed to catch up.

"Good job Rinoa," he called out while passing her again.

Angelo thought the praise for was for himself, so he happily turned to follow Squall and left Rinoa behind.

"Angelo, stay with me!" Rinoa huffed.

Squall decided that they'd jogged enough, so he abruptly turned around so Angelo would come back towards Rinoa. When they met in the center of the grassy field, Angelo jumped up excitedly on her. Muddy paw prints smeared across her blue exercise shorts.

"Angelo, down! Stop it! DOWN! DOWN!" Rinoa yelled irritably.

Angelo jumped down as Squall's knees started to slightly bend.

_That's strange. My legs must be fatigued. Time to stretch._

"Okay Rinoa, let's do some leg stretches."

They did stretches in silence as Angelo sat looking up at them with a big happy doggy smile.

"We still have some time before Edea arrives, so let's do some push-ups," Squall said.

Rinoa lightly groaned.

"You can do the modified push-ups. I'll do the military ones," Squall said. "Drop and give me 20!"

Rinoa looked at him with annoyance.

"I mean, let's see if you can do 20 push-ups. Please."

They both got down on the grass side-by-side. Rinoa was able to do 20 modified push-ups with ease, so she decided to try doing 30. When she was done she quickly sat up and watched Squall do his endless military push-ups. His well toned arm muscles strained under the exercise.

_Wow, Squall's so strong. I don't think he's even counting them. Is he going to do them until his muscles fatigue?_

She sat up on her knees and enjoyed the view for a while. Even the muscles on his back were showing through his t-shirt.

"You're really strong Squall..."

He acknowledged her comment with a breathy huff while not breaking rhythm.

She leaned closer.

"Would you have to do so many if you had more weight resistance?" Rinoa asked.

He kept going without comment.

Suddenly Squall felt something heavy falling on his back. The air was knocked out of his lungs as he was trying to come up out of a push-up. His face was smashed sideways into the damp grass.

"Urk!" Squall grunted.

"Ooomph!" Rinoa huffed while collapsing on top of Squall's back. "Wow, I didn't expect that! You looked so strong. I don't weight that much..."

Squall struggled while she continued to lay on top of his back.

"Rinoa... get... off... me..."

She quickly rolled off him while flushing red.

"I just thought I'd help you work out faster. If you had more weight on your back maybe you wouldn't have to do so many. I've seen other people do push-ups with people on their backs. Raijin's done it before."

"Raijin is the size of a truck, I'd already done over 50 push-ups, and you could have warned me!" Squall said angrily.

Rinoa was still red in the face and uncomfortable. Angelo sensed her need for comfort and nuzzled his head into her for support. She busied herself with petting Angelo's shaggy fur while avoiding Squall's stony gaze.

"Let's just stretch out until Edea arrives," Squall said while huffing and brushing blades of grass of his face.

They stretched out in silence while not looking at each other.

It wasn't long before Edea made her appearance on the field. Luckily, they both had worked through their tension over the last few minutes. By the time she walked up to them, they were ready to start afresh.

"Good morning," Edea said softly while nodding at them. "Let's get started right away. Rinoa try to do some magic. Maybe try something offensive, like fire. Squall assist her. I'll supervise."

 _Assist her, what does that mean?_ Squall thought to himself while edging closer to Rinoa.

Rinoa looked around and saw grass, flowers, and trees. She didn't want to set anything there on fire, that seemed unnecessarily destructive. Edea told her to try fire, but she didn't want to do that. She instead thought a water spell would be better. That way she'd actually be helping the plants grow. Her concentration focused on watering the plants around her. After a few moments a small sprinkling of water appeared out of thin air. The wildflowers gently bent beneath the tiny magical rain shower. She looked up and smiled widely at Squall. He walked closer to her as she worked her magic. The closer he got to Rinoa, the stronger the water spell became. Soon, it was a rushing waterfall that was soaking the field.

"Rinoa, I said to use fire, not water. Did you do that on purpose?" Edea asked. "Well, no matter. Just make it stop, you're getting the field all muddy and flooded.

"Stop it? How do I do that? I don't know how!" Rinoa yelled in a frightened voice. Her head swung around and her wide eyes caught Squall's stone faced gaze. If he was alarmed, he wasn't showing it.

The field kept flooding.

He continued to walk over to Rinoa, getting his shoes soaked along the way. The water was gushing faster now with no signs of stopping. She tried to move out of the way of the water, but the flow followed her as she moved. Rinoa started to visibly panic amongst the watery chaos.

Squall reached out and grabbed her shoulders from behind.

"Just make it stop. You can do it," he whispered into her ear.

"NO, I can't!" she said while stomping her shoe in the sloshing cold water.

She started to shake from cold and fear. In her panic, she tried to break free from Squall's grasp, but he didn't let go.

"You can make it stop. Just stop. STOP!" He said while giving her shoulders an encouraging squeeze in a calm but firm voice.

Rinoa's panic started to drain out of her system, and her outlook on life suddenly felt like it had completely changed. This wasn't so bad. She could do it. She was calm and strong. All she needed to do was be disciplined, do her best, and practice. The world was an orderly place if she just applied herself. Strength and discipline could get her far. She didn't have to be at the mercy of these powers. She'd never be at the mercy of anybody ever again if she just worked harder. She could be independent and strong. Complete protection was attainable if she just worked harder and shelled herself off from...

Suddenly the water spell stopped and it felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Squall pulled back and nodded his head at her quietly.

"You made it stop. Good teamwork," Edea said.

 _Teamwork?_ Rinoa thought.

"Rinoa, your powers eventually will start to grow. It is important to work out all the kinks while your magical powers are still relatively weak. Experimenting with your limits and quirks are safer now than they will be later. You don't want any unfortunate accidents or surprises to happen," Edea explained.

Rinoa and Squall gave each other a sidelong glance. Rinoa's face was visibly worried, but Squall merely appeared attentive.

"Unfortunate accidents? Surprises?" Rinoa squeaked while rubbing her cold arms.

"Yes, we've all seen the destruction sorceress powers can cause. You need to learn how to control yourself before your powers grow to a dangerous level. This is very important. Your emotions and powers have to be controlled or they can break you down. It takes great mental prowess to be able to use power to build up and not destroy."

Squall nodded at what Edea was saying. His messy brown bangs bobbed up and down as he gave a look of approval towards Edea. Apparently he whole-heartedly agreed with what she was saying.

"Why is this happening?" Rinoa murmured while looking at her soaked shoes.

"Rinoa, for whatever reason, this is the way our world works. Some women are channels of power. Just look on the bright side, a very bad person could have inherited these powers. Aren't you glad that the powers went to you instead? The world needs building up, not tearing down. I noticed you chose a water spell instead of a fire spell. You seem to be the sort of person who would rather create than destroy. Look on the positive side of the situation," Edea tried to say comfortingly.

Rinoa sniffled a little bit. She tried not to think about the gravity of her situation because it would overwhelm her. Her life would never be the same after having these powers forced on her.

"But don't be afraid Rinoa. Squall is here to help you. We're all here to help you," Edea finished.

"Okay," Rinoa said fearfully while holding tightly to the rings around her neck.

"Well, you both should keep up your practicing, and contact me if you have any questions in between sessions," Edea said.

"Thank you," Squall and Rinoa both said.

Edea bid them farewell and started walking back to Garden. Her small feet splashed in the wet puddles left from Rinoa's out of control water spell.

Rinoa looked down at the large puddle she was standing in. A little wildflower floated past her shoe.

_So much for protecting and helping the plants grow. At least I didn't drown a person..._

Disappointment and sadness flowed through her.

Squall looked over at her while pushing his hair out of his face.

"Good job today. Making progress," Squall said.

"This training is hard and kinda scary," she sighed.

"Rinoa, you could practice on your own to get better. Practice is a key to success."

"I do everything on my own," Rinoa said sadly. "I'm alone ALL the time. Alone and lonely and on my own..."

Squall suddenly envisioned Rinoa practicing magic alone. Hot flames danced in his mind as he imagined Rinoa setting her clothes on fire. His back tensed up in fear.

"Actually, I think I should always be with you when you practice your magic. Always. But... if you wanted to exercise a little bit more on your own, that would be fine. But... don't practice magic on your own. Just don't."

"Okay Squall, but I don't think I need your help with my magic. You're more helpful with physical exercises because..."

"JUST. DON'T. PLEASE." Squall said while raising his hands up in the air.

"Um, okay..." Rinoa trailed off while playing with her necklace.

"I know I'm busy a lot, but if you feel that you can't help but practice your magic, contact me first. Being commander is important, but being your knight is important too. I can't promise I'll be able to stop what I'm doing for you whenever, but I'll try."

"Okay, thanks Squall." Rinoa brightened a bit at hearing his support.

"Why don't you practice starting and stopping your water spell again. But just try to do a little one. The field is wet enough now. I don't want the field to get so damaged that I have to hire a lawn crew to re-sod it. I fill out enough Garden paperwork as it is."

Squall's nose wrinkled slightly at the thought of his never ending Garden duties.

Rinoa's face blushed as she nodded. Angelo barked and splashed in the puddles beside her before deciding to chase a bushy tailed squirrel. They'd all started out looking clean that morning, but now they were wet, muddy, and grass covered. She felt defeated at her own lack of control and sloppiness, and she didn't want to disappoint everybody.

"Okay, I'm gonna try and get my magic under control. It's really important... I can do it?" she said in an unsure voice.

"You can do it," Squall said simply while crossing his arms and nodding at her.

 _If you can't do it, I'll figure out how to do it for you,_ Squall thought silently to himself. _It's important another sorceress war doesn't break out. How many families have been torn apart because of all of this?_

Rinoa smiled widely at his apparent faith in her. It made her feel strong and important. People didn't ever consider her the type of person who could come through on something. Her father had treated her like a dumb brat that needed to be locked up for her own protection. And her stint with the Timber Owls hadn't been very helpful for them either. She legitimately wanted to help people, she just hadn't been very successful at it. She wanted to be like Squall, strong and capable. Well, mostly like Squall, but with better social skills.

_Okay Rinoa, the field will dry out eventually. Everything will turn out okay if we keep practicing... probably. Let's just discover all the surprises we can before I become dangerous. Squall believes in me, and I'm not gonna disappoint him!_

The sun rose ever higher in the sky, warming them as they started to practice in earnest.


	11. Chapter 11

It was that special time of evening where the sky was getting dark, but some of the sunset colors remained. The outlines of objects against the sky contrasting sharply in deep blues and blacks. Rinoa peered out her window watching the last light in the sky empty into the darkness.

Although this was a beautiful time of evening, it tended to invoke certain emotions in her. She felt a burst of loneliness and emptiness inside as she was in her darkened room. She laid back on her pillow trying to focus on the softly playing piano album in the background. Pulling a pink blanket around her shoulders to comfort herself, she took a few deep breaths. This was yet another night where she was alone with Angelo in her room with nothing to do. She'd felt that she'd been making some progress making connections with Squall and the others, but she still had a lot of time to herself. It was wearing on her nerves.

Selphie had hung out with her earlier in the evening, but her bubbly chatting about the upcoming Garden Social was making her sad. Usually hanging around Selphie lifted her spirits and made her feel better, but after chatting a while with Selphie, if anything, it made her feel worse. She had spent the entire time talking about how Irvine had given her a bouquet of daisies and asked her to go with him, and it was too sweet for Rinoa to handle. It was hard to be happy for a friend when she was not feeling good about herself. Squall hadn't asked her to go with him. Maybe he wouldn't. Maybe he wasn't even thinking about it at all. That was probably the case. He had a lot of more important things to be thinking about than a silly dance. Perhaps looking up relationship help in the library was a waste of time.

_All my silly planning was stupid. Squall is a person, not a cat. I'm still alone almost all the time. That's just the way it's going to be. I might as well accept it now so I won't be unhappy about it forever._

She reached out and petted Angelo while he relaxed with her on her bed.

"At least you're here for me, aren't you boy?"

_Listening to music in the dark by myself is making me feel extra sad... I should do something productive like practice my magic... WAIT!_

Rinoa sat up on her bed and thought of a plan.

_Squall told me to never practice my magic without him there. Maybe I can get him to come over tonight for a little bit of magic practice._

She imagined Squall coming over and having a nice quiet evening alone with her. Her heart lightened at the thought. It was worth a try.

She reached over to grab her cell phone off her nightstand. While dialing Squall's number she tried to think of things to say to him. Her nerves started to build as each ring went unanswered. Her fingertips drummed on the side of her phone and she bit her bottom lip in anticipation.

_He's not answering... He's probably busy... Oh well, it was a good idea..._

"Squall speaking."

Rinoa jumped at hearing the sound of his voice. At that point she'd already given up on him answering her that night. She was so stunned she said nothing. She was unaware that she had been holding her breath since she dialed.

"Hello? Squall speaking. Is someone there?" He huffed in annoyance at the unnecessary interruption..

"Squall... It's me, Rinoa!"

"Hello Rinoa, I didn't hear anything. I thought maybe you'd accidentally dialed me."

"Oh no! It wasn't an accident..." Rinoa stumbled while trying to get herself together.

"Why'd you call me?" Squall asked.

"I was just thinking..." she said slowly, drawing out each word.

"I was just thinking of you too."

Her stomach began to flutter excitedly. Was he thinking of her romantically? Was he going to officially ask her to the Garden Social? What did he think about? He was quiet nearly all the time.

"Oh... you were? Um, well... wait, why were you thinking of me?" she laughed nervously while pushing some of her dark hair behind her ear.

"I was mostly thinking about the sorceress knight bond."

_He's thinking about his duty. Typical Squall._

"Oh, okay... yea that. Well, about that. I was thinking about practicing my magic tonight."

"I'm busy with other things tonight Rinoa. Maybe we could schedule it for..."

"But I NEED to practice my magic! I feel like it's going to just pop out of me tonight on its own. I don't know if I'll be able to control it," Rinoa lied. "But I understand that you're busy. I'll be okay... probably. Most likely... I'm sure nothing terrible will happen."

Rinoa felt a little bit bad for not being completely honest with Squall, but she was very lonely at Garden. And whose fault was that?!

Breathing could be heard on Squall's end of the line. He seemed to be lost in thought. A few moments passed before he spoke.

"I'll be over in a few minutes," he said quickly.

Rinoa smiled, but then she heard a click of the call ending. She looked down at her phone in amazement.

_He didn't even said goodbye! Squall needs some etiquette lessons. Does Garden teach those types of things? It seems that if they'd teach their students how to dance that they'd teach them basic manners as well. He seems so serious and studious for everything else... I wonder what other things they were taught in addition to ballroom dancing..._

Her mind started to wander.

A steady knock interrupted her thoughts. It hadn't felt like a few minutes. He must have run over.

"Rinoa, are you in there?" Squall's voice was muffled through her door.

Rinoa quickly looked around her dark and messy room. Having Squall over was a spur of the moment thought. She didn't think he'd really end up coming over tonight, and she certainly didn't think he'd rush over immediately.

"Just a minute Squall!" she called.

_Ah, I gotta clean up my room FAST!_

She quickly kicked some of her clothes into her closet and forced it shut. Her shoes were stuffed under her bed. Any granola bar wrappers that were laying around were quickly disposed in the trash. She tried to smooth out the blankets on her bed too. Right as she was about to open the door for Squall she noticed a lacy pink bra on the floor. She quickly picked it up and stuffed it behind a couch pillow.

"Coming Squall, just a sec!"

While smoothing out her hair she opened up the door with a worried smile on her face.

"Come in Squall."

"Why is it so dark in here?"

"Sorry, I was just listening to music on my bed. I'll put on a light."

Squall pulled off his black boots and set some folders full of paperwork near the door before moving towards the center of her room.

"What magic did you feel you had to practice right now?" Squall said, quickly getting to the reason why he came over.

After flipping on a small light, Rinoa walked back to the center of her room where Squall stood with his arms crossed. He looked uncomfortable. She caught him looking at a pile of dirty clothes guiltily.

"Oh, um... fire magic?" she blurted out.

Squall raised an eyebrow at her. She didn't want to practice fire magic the other day, why would she do it now. Especially now that she was indoors and surrounded by flammable things.

_Good thing I came over right away. I don't want Rinoa to get hurt or burn Garden down. Just stay calm, don't let her sense your mistrust,_ he thought to himself.

Rinoa looked around her room quickly while trying to elaborate on her story. She noticed that in some of the clutter on top of her desk there was a scented candle in a jar. She pointed at it for Squall to see. It was nearly buried under her stack of notebooks.

"I thought it'd be safe to practice on that candle over there. I'd just do a tiny fire spell, just enough to light the wick. Um, as Edea said... you should assist me... I guess."

Squall stood ready to help.

She concentrated very hard and pointed a finger in the general direction of her desk. Her mind focused on the candle. A bright spark appeared in the air.

_Wow, I didn't think I'd be able to figure that one out so quickly, and it was just a small one too! I'm learning control!_

Suddenly the stack of notebooks caught on fire instead of the candle. The flames started to spread quickly.

"Um, oops... Yea, maybe I shouldn't be doing this inside. I'll do a water spell to put it out!"

Squall imagined an indoor flood.

"NO! Rinoa, I'll put the fire out. Step back."

Squall grabbed a pink blanket off her bed and beat out the fire quickly putting out the flames. Plumes of smoke floated through the air making a haze.

Squall nodded while checking to make sure the flames had been muffled completely with Rinoa's blanket. He looked down at it when he was done.

_This fluffy pink blanket looks particularly familiar for some reason. What is this reminding me of?_

He stopped wondering when he noticed the smoke in her room. Luckily there was only a little bit of smoke, but he walked over to her window to open it. The cool night air rushed in and he fanned some of the smokiness outside.

"Thanks. I guess I didn't actually get the candle lit. Maybe I should..."

"NO!" Squall said urgently with his hand out.

"...light the candle with a match," Rinoa finished while looking up at his worried face.

Squall relaxed.

"It's okay, the candle doesn't have to be lit," Squall said. "If you need to practice magic right here and now, maybe you should pick something safer."

Rinoa looked over at her bed where Angelo was sleeping.

"Oh, I know! I never really got a sleep spell to work on you during our first training session. Maybe I could try that here. I mean it is a bedroom, it seems that it would be appropriate. What do you think Squall?" She played with the ends of her hair while looking up at him expectantly.

Squall imagined falling asleep in Rinoa's room, on top of her fluffy pink blankets, listening to quiet piano music, surrounded by soft and perfumed pillows. It sounded pleasant enough. It sounded really good, heavenly actually. He wished he could do that every day. Nothing could go wrong.

_Unless she puts me to sleep and then accidentally sets the room on fire. I don't like the idea of being unconscious if a problem occurs..._

Being out of control of his body and at the mercy of the situation was not something he was comfortable with. He was torn between wanting to be completely safe and wanting to trust Rinoa. He looked up with her smiling face beaming at him from across the room, and it lessened his worries. She looked so sweet and soft.

_She doesn't look like she could hurt anybody or anything... Well, she's not really in control of her powers yet but..._

Although he concealed his emotions, Squall had been falling in love with Rinoa over the last few months. The sweet look she was giving him from across her dimly lit bedroom was causing him to feel warm and stupid. The regimented military part of his mind was being overridden by a love induced euphoria.

_It'll be fine... A little nap on Rinoa's bed sounds great..._

"I think that sounds okay Rinoa," he said with a slight smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Great!" Rinoa said while clasping her hands together tightly and closing her eyes.

Squall turned with the intent to go over to Rinoa's bed when the world around him started shrinking. The edges of his vision started going dark as he slumped. Rinoa's floor seemed to rush up and hit him. The last thing he felt was a hard plastic dog toy smashing into the side of his face.

_What the..._ Squall thought as he forcibly went to sleep.

"Yeah! It worked! I did it!" Rinoa yelped while dancing around Squall's awkwardly slumped figure. "I'm figuring this magic stuff out..." She looked down at Squall. "Except... how do I wake him up?"

Rinoa kneeled on the floor next to Squall. She peered at his face to see if he was starting to stir.

_Um... I think in battles it just wears off after a while... or sometimes a hit wakes a sleeping person up..._

She waited a minute before grabbing his shoulders and gently shaking him. Nothing happened. She shook him harder. Nothing happened.

_His face looks so cute when he's sleeping. I kinda want to take a picture, but I should probably wake him up. I don't want to have to slap him... but maybe I have to..._

Rinoa slowly reached out and gave Squall's face a light slap. Nothing happened. She started to worry, but he was breathing and didn't seem distressed. In her panic slapped his face hard.

He started to stir.

_What's going on?_ Squall thought groggily.

He pulled his face off the carpet and massaged his sore face. Angelo's dog toy had been painfully wedged between his cheek and the carpet. He rolled onto his back.

Rinoa reached out and grabbed the front of his leather jacket while leaning towards his sleepy face.

"Squall, I did it! Isn't that great?! Aren't you happy?!"

He slowly blinked while waving her off with his hand.

"Good job Rinoa," he said flatly. He started to sit up. "Next time can you wait for me to lay down someplace comfortable? Especially because your soft bed is right over there."

"Oh... um yea... sorry..."

"It's fine."

"Okay..." she said sheepishly.

He was starting to wake up. The sleep spell was getting out of his system.

"Have you practiced magic enough for tonight? I wanted... no... needed to speak with you about something else. I wasn't sure if this would be a good time or not," Squall said in an unsure voice.

She nodded at him curiously.

Rinoa walked Squall over to her little blue couch and sat down with him. He yawned and looked a little bit flustered for a moment, but then he launched into what he'd been meaning to speak about with her.

"Your powers are probably growing, and I'm glad that we've been able to train and practice together. We've been making some progress. I'm here to help you."

He sighed and rubbed his hand over his forehead. His reluctance to talk about this subject was clear to Rinoa. She started to worry about what he was going to say.

"Rinoa, I've noticed that you've been acting different lately. Maybe you didn't know that I'd noticed, but I did. At first I thought it had something to do with your sorceress powers, and I started doing some investigating. I've even spoken to Cid and Edea about it."

"You talked about me with Cid?"

"Yes, well Cid and Edea. I wanted to know about the sorceress knight bond. Actually they had me speak with Seifer too," he said quickly while looking at the floor.

"You talked about me with SEIFER?"

"Cid and Edea thought he'd be helpful explaining the sorceress knight bond."

"Why didn't you talk to me first?" she said slightly irritated.

"I didn't want you to worry. I wanted to be prepared before I had a discussion with you. Oh, and don't be mad, but as a last resort I went into your room to search for clues."

Rinoa's mouth fell open at Squall's statement. Her brain barely processed what he'd just said.

"I was only doing it to help!" he said trying to justify his actions.

He sighed deeply, but then continued.

"There really didn't seem to be any helpful clues in your room. Nothing seemed amiss or dangerous that could be blamed on your recent sorceress powers. Although I was surprised when I found a book about pets. You seemed to have a lot of bookmarks in the section about cats. At first I thought it was nothing, but now I think I know what you've been up to."

She was angry at his deception and unwillingness to talk to her about what was bothering him, but then she felt guilty at her own schemes. She didn't want him to find out about her silly pet book plan. What if he knew she was trying to tame him like a feral cat?

"You do?" Rinoa said nervously while grabbing onto her necklace.

Squall nodded his head while looking down at the floor.

"I know I've been busy lately, and you've probably been lonely. You've even mentioned it a few times. I know what you're wanting."

"Really?" She leaned forward excitedly.

"I understand completely. I haven't been there for you like I should have been," Squall stated.

"So you do understand?!"

"Yes, I understand. I want you to be happy at Garden."

She smiled at him.

"I did some research too, and I have something that will change things for you."

"Research?" Rinoa asked.

Squall went over to retrieve the paperwork he left by her door. He walked back and handed Rinoa a file folder. She looked confused.

"You're lonely... so... I would not be opposed to you getting a cat. Lonely women really seem to like cats. People at Garden aren't suppose to have pets but, I mean you already have a dog, and that isn't technically allowed either."

"Huh?"

Rinoa was not expecting that response.

She opened up the file folder and there were printouts of shelter cats that were awaiting adoption from the local Balamb animal shelter.

"I highlighted some of the cats that seemed the best for you. Like I said... I want you to be happy."

Squall pointed at a photo.

"This cat looked interesting. His name is Shadow. He's quiet and likes to hide. The shelter says you have to be careful or he'll slip away from you when you are least expecting it. I'm sure you'd be able make a connection with him even though he's flighty."

Rinoa looked down at a photo of a sleek and silky black cat. Squall then pointed at another picture, this one of a big shaggy black cat.

"This guy was a stray that was found roaming the fields outside of Balamb. He likes to hunt there, and it looks like he's gotten into a lot of fights too. He's got some scars. His name is Noctis. The shelter says he's a little aloof, but I'm sure he'll open up for the right person," Squall said with the corners of his lips almost turning up.

She was astonished by what she was seeing. She held up her hands towards for him to stop.

"I don't want a cat Squall!"

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was getting flustered and she could feel her eyes filling with tears.

"I want you!" Rinoa yelled. "I mean, what I meant to say was... um..."

Squall looked up towards Rinoa with his eyebrows raised.

"If you didn't want a cat, why do you have all these notes about cats in your room?" he asked with a bewildered expression.

"Well, maybe I thought about getting a cat a little bit," Rinoa lied.

_I sure hope he doesn't find out what I was actually up to. He might like being compared to a lion, but a cute kitty cat, not so much._

"You're right that I have been feeling pretty lonely. I guess there are a lot of reasons why..."

She started sniffling a little bit while she was explaining, and she took a big breath before continuing in a rush.

"Squall, I just feel so out of place here! Even my room is separate from everybody else! People gossip about me all the time! Xu hates me, and probably a lot of other SeeDs do too! I don't know what I'm doing or where I belong! I feel like I have no purpose! I'm not a cadet or a SeeD! I'm totally useless!" Rinoa sobbed hysterically with tears spilling over her face.

Squall absorbed what she'd just said with a stunned expression. After a moment he stood up from the couch and turned around while sweeping his arm aside angrily.

"Enough! Rinoa that's enough!"

Rinoa was momentarily shocked out of her tears and dropped the folder full of papers. She usually didn't see him get this angry. Squall kneeled down in front of the couch where she was seated and took hold of her shoulders. He looked her full in the face and continued.

"Rinoa you aren't useless! You do have a purpose!"

She gulped breathlessly.

"I do?" she said quietly.

"Yes you do!" he said strongly while nodding his head at her.

"Rinoa, you have a very, very important purpose, and nobody else can do it but you. You are to prevent the sorceress from taking over the world. The peace of the world is depending upon you. Just continue being peaceful and kind. Show everybody that a sorceress can be good. Just don't take over the world. DON'T TAKE OVER THE WORLD! I'll be here to help you. I'm your knight."

_Although if you do decide to take over the world, I'm pretty sure I'd help you too. I'm your knight. I'd sit back and watch the world burn._

Rinoa looked into his steel blue eyes seeing herself mirrored there. Her big dark eyes reflected back at herself.

"Squall, I wanted to wait for a better time than this but... I don't think I'm imagining this... sorry this is kinda creepy but... since I'm a sorceress now... I'm pretty sure that... um... I think I can kinda hear your thoughts sometimes when you're thinking something strongly."

_Aw man! Did she just hear my thoughts just now!_ Squall thought frantically.

Rinoa looked back into his eyes with an embarrassed expression and nodded.

He released her shoulders and pulled back. Squall felt many conflicting emotions coming over himself. He was unsure of how to proceed. There were other things he needed to tell her, although he didn't want to have to do it tonight.

"I think we need to have a talk... out loud. I wanted to wait to tell you this, but I think I've been experiencing some of your dreams," Squall said slowly.

Rinoa's mouth fell open. It was bad enough that he'd been in her room, but he'd been in her mind too.

"What did you see!? What dreams! WHAT DID YOU SEE!?"

Squall looked petrified. He ran his fingers through his hair, and after a few moments he spoke.

"I dreamt I was a black cat in a storm, and then I dreamt I was a lion in a cage."

Rinoa let out a big breath she didn't realize she'd been holding in. She looked visibly relieved.

"Oh okay, I remember those dreams. That wasn't so bad. I mean, if it was just those two dreams..."

Rinoa looked up and caught Squall looking anywhere but in her eyes.

"Seriously Squall! What did you see?" Rinoa was turning pink in the face.

"It was definitely those two dreams Rinoa. If there were any others that were specifically your dreams, I'm not sure."

Rinoa felt drained and embarrassed. She slumped forward into Squall's neck and kept sniffling, trying to hold back more tears. Her hands bunched up the material of his t-shirt. He didn't push her away, but he didn't hold her either.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it. I didn't see anything you need to be embarrassed about," he said in what was meant to be a reassuring voice.

_Probably._

_Probably, Squall?_

Rinoa closed her eyes tightly, but tears leaked out anyways.

"I didn't ask for any of this... I just wanted to free Timber..." her muffled voice started to break up.

Squall's shirt and neck were starting to get soaked with tears. He could feel her hot breath and shakiness as she continued to hold onto him. Her emotions were swirling strongly in the pit of her stomach. She felt completely overwhelmed and helpless like a person adrift at sea. She clung to Squall like he was a life preserver.

The intense feelings of being overwhelmed flowed over to Squall. After a few minutes of listening to Rinoa crying, he burst out speaking of feelings he would not normally admit to.

"I didn't ask for any of this either. It was forced on me. I'm still a teenager and I'm responsible for so much more than most adults here. I didn't want this. I thought I'd just be an ordinary SeeD and follow other people's orders. I didn't want to think so much and be tied down with so much crushing responsibility."

Squall suddenly felt Rinoa's body tense up at his words.

_Uh, when I said 'tied down' I didn't mean you!_ he thought loudly.

"I mean having Cid make me commander has been tough, and I thought it'd only be temporary. I'm glad I met you, even with all this sorceress-knight-commander business."

_If not for you I'd probably be dead by now. I didn't have much to live for other than recklessly endangering myself on SeeD missions._

"Squall, you're still going to go on SeeD missions," Rinoa said while pulling back and looking up in his face.

"Yes, but I'm not going to be reckless about it. If a client orders us to do something reckless, I'll advise them on changing their tactics to minimize risks. I don't just want to follow orders that will get me killed."

Rinoa felt a surge of love for him. Even after everything that befell her since their first meeting, she was glad they were together now. He was a help to her, and she wanted to be a help to him.

"I just want you to be safe... If something ever happened to you... I'd... I'd..." she stuttered.

She started crying again. Once the floodgates had been opened it was hard for them to stop.

"It's okay. I've been well trained. I promise I'll be careful. I don't want to be selfish and only think of myself anymore."

He wrapped his arms around her back and held her tightly to his chest.

"It's okay. I'll be safe. Don't worry. It'll be okay," he reassured her. He was making an unspoken promise that was impossible to guarantee considering he was a SeeD. His hand wandered up to gently smooth her hair.

"I um... care about you... a lot," he stumbled. "Because I'm your... frie... kni... boy..."

_Boyfriend?_ she pushed into his mind tentatively.

_If that's what you want..._ he pushed back at her. His body became still as he waited for a response.

"Of course that's what I want!" she said out loud while wrapping her arms around him. "Our relationship wasn't the best defined... and you are always so busy... I didn't want to force you..."

_You aren't forcing me into doing anything I don't want to do,_ he thought strongly at her.

Squall loosened his hold on Rinoa so he could look down at her face. Her wet eyes looked up at him. He took off his gloves before slowly reaching up to wipe some of the tears off her cheeks. She could feel the tension building in the air. Squall's stomach started to flutter nervously as he licked his lips. His hand reached out to hold hers, and he leaned in and gave her a small kiss on her cheek. Her eyes shut as her face flushed in the dim light. He leaned in once more, and this time his lips found her lips. The kiss was so soft and feathery light that it tickled Rinoa, and she couldn't help but giggle.

He abruptly pulled back and dropped her hand when he heard her laugh.

"Sorry," Squall said while looking at the floor.

She looked up at him with her eyes wide. Her laugh wasn't meant to offend him, although now that she thought about it, the timing was very bad. She'd finally got him to come to her on his own. This is what she'd been wanting every since that day she was looking up relationship advice in the Balamb library. She was just so excited and ticklish, it was an accident.

She moved towards him so he wouldn't leave. At the same time he was sighing while leaning forward. His forehead bumped into hers hard.

"Ouch!" Rinoa yelped while grabbing her forehead.

"Sorry," Squall said. This time he was cringing, and he started to pull further away. He ran his hand through his hair.

Rinoa noticed he was getting tense and sweaty. She reached her hand out to him and he accidentally knocked it to the side. He then shook his hair out of his eyes nervously. His arms crossed over his chest making his leather jacket hold himself tighter.

"S... sorry..." he stuttered.

_Noooo! I was just getting him to open up to me more! I can't let him shell up again!_

Rinoa dropped off the couch onto her knees in front of where Squall was already kneeling. She grabbed hold of his tightly crossed arms and forced them apart. Not that she would have had the strength to do that unless he'd yielded slightly, so that was a good sign. Taking that as encouragement, she flung herself into his chest and slid her arms inside of his leather jacket. She held him as tightly as she could and grabbed at the thin material of his white t-shirt while burying her face into his chest.

"I wasn't laughing at you! I was just so happy... and I'm really, really ticklish!"

Squall let out a small huff of acknowledgment and let his arms wrap around her to pat her back awkwardly.

_What is with Squall and back pats?_ Rinoa thought. _It's so goofy. Sometimes he reminds me of Laguna._

"Laguna?" Squall said out loud.

_Uh-oh! How do I get him out of my mind? There's got to be a way to close this off._

"Well, even if you don't look like him, or were raised by him, technically you are his son," she said slowly.

"We'll see what a paternity test has to say about that," Squall stated coldly.

"Squall! He's your father and he loves you. He didn't mean for any of this to happen! If he went around the world to save Ellone, he would have certainly come for his own flesh and blood if he'd known! I wish Caraway loved me like Laguna loves you."

_Talking about Laguna is really killing the mood Rinoa._

_Hey Squall, as clumsy as Laguna is, at least he figured out romance enough to MAKE you!_

Squall tensed up at the thought of Laguna and Raine.

_I really don't want to think about Laguna's role in my own conception right now... or ever._

_Oh, so now you're acknowledging him as your father? Laguna could give you some advice. You guys could have 'the talk,'_ she joked mentally. _He could explain where babies come from._

_Considering how much of a surprise my existence was for him recently, maybe he doesn't know much about that._

_Oh Squall!_

Squall covered his face with his hands and sighed while Rinoa still clung to him. After having just kissed her a few minutes ago, he certainly didn't think he'd be having this awkward mental conversation with her.

"Rinoa, you're sweet and beautiful, but you really can be annoying sometimes," he said out loud.

Shock covered her face at his rude bluntness. Especially since she'd been trying to cuddle up and get closer to him. Well, maybe she shouldn't have teased him, especially about Laguna.

"Well, you know how the poem goes, 'a thing of beauty is an annoyance forever.'" Squall recited with a serious face.

"Squall, you really are like Laguna, the saying goes, 'a thing of beauty is a JOY forever!'"

Squall smirked down at her. He'd been making a joke.

"I didn't think you'd know enough about poetry, to even misquote it," Rinoa said.

"Garden is a military institution and school, but it is still a school. I had to learn literature like any other student."

"Can you quote any other poems for me?" she said playfully while tapping her fingers on his back.

"I could..."

He swiftly reached out and lifted her back onto the couch and took a seat next to her.

"... but I won't."

She laughed and pushed him down on the couch. He let himself get pushed until he was laying on his back. She scrunched up her nose at him before laying down and snuggling into his side with one arm draped over his chest.

"You're so serious that even your joking is serious. Whenever you're joking, you're seriously joking, ha ha..."

She remembered the time Squall had shown her around Garden and he'd teased her in front of Dr. Kadowaki. They hadn't know each other for long at the time, and it was embarrassing. Although now, it was a pleasant and funny memory.

She leaned over and gave Squall a small kiss on the underside of his jaw.

A feeling of warm and sleepy contentment flooded her, and they both became relaxed and quiet. She didn't know if the emotion she was feeling was coming from her or Squall. Maybe it was a combination. It was weird to partially share emotions and thoughts. In some instances it was invasive and scary, but at the moment it was soothing away their tension and worries.

"Thanks for coming over, and talking with me... I feel better now..." she said while yawning.

The tears had started to dry on her face, but she was left feeling drained from the rush of emotions. Being able to read each other's thoughts was disorienting, but she was enjoying the warmth and joking between them. She'd need to figure out how to censor some of their mind sharing, but it was nice sometimes.

"I like being open with you, please don't hide anything from me again. I need you, and I think you need me too. This sorceress thing is really important, and I don't think I can do it on my own. All the sorceress knight stuff... even if that hadn't happened... well... even if we were normal... um, whatever we do... can we do it together from now on?" Rinoa said slowly while sleepily threading her fingers through his.

He leaned down and lightly kissed her forehead while giving her hand a squeeze. Her body continued to relax against his.

"I'll try," he said softly while he felt her body start to go slack as she drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you were wondering about the bit of poetry I included. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." - John Keats (English Romantic Poet)
> 
> Although "A thing of beauty is an annoyance forever" is all Squall Leonhart.


	12. Chapter 12

Bright sunlight streamed across Rinoa's face. She closed her eyes tighter trying to block it out, but the sun was too strong. She threw an arm over her face hoping to get a few extra minutes of sleep. A cool morning breeze blew through her room ruffling some papers.

_Oh, I feel so relaxed this morning. I don't want to get up. I'm so happy._

Loud bird chirps were forcing her back awake. Her sleep fogged brain started to clear and her consciousness started to float back towards reality.

She suddenly remembered Squall coming over last night and the talk they'd had. It had been emotionally draining for her, but it felt good to clear the air.

 _Wait, is Squall still here?!_ she thought in a panic.

She opened her eyes and noticed she was in her bed and not on the couch where she'd fallen asleep the night before. Squall was nowhere to be seen. That was a huge relief, but she felt oddly disappointed too.

_That's weird, I don't remember getting into my bed. I remember setting fire to some notebooks... successfully casting sleep on Squall... talking... crying... kissing... more talking... falling asleep on the couch?_

For some reason she was in her bed with no memory of how she got there. And her bed was covered in a nicely folded pile of extra blankets. She was becoming far too warm and sweaty for the bright sunshiny morning. Rinoa tried to sit up, but her movement was restricted. It nearly felt like she was tied down. The sheets and blankets were tucked firmly around her, and she had to forcibly untuck and kick them off before she could get up. When she finally wriggled out of her sheets and pushed back the hot covers she saw that she was still in the clothes she was wearing last night. A refreshing breeze blew through the window cooling her off.

_Huh? Why am I not wearing pajamas?_

The fluttering sound of paper blowing in the breeze caught her attention, and she turned to her nightstand. A neatly folded piece of notebook paper was tucked under the edge of her lamp.

She reached out to grab it. She slowly unfolded it and began to read.

'Rinoa,

Last night you fell asleep on the couch. At first I didn't want to wake you because you were sleeping peacefully. Then I decided it'd be best for you to sleep in your own bed, so I tried to wake you. Waking you up is no small task, and apparently I was unable to do so. I hope you don't mind that I tucked you in bed before leaving.

\- Squall

P.S. If you don't want to be by yourself during the day, you could come up to my office to read or study while I work.'

Rinoa looked down at Squall's small, neat and heavy handed handwriting. It contrasted oddly with his larger and elegant signature.

_Aaaaw, he tucked me in! That is so sweet. I mean he piled too many blankets on me and tucked me in so hard I could hardly move, but SWEET! Tee-hee! I think he's really starting to warm up to me! And he invited me to be with him in his office! Everything is starting to work out._

Rinoa's previous plans of rolling around in bed were quickly discarded now that she had something to actually look forward to. She hopped out of bed in excitement and then nearly fell down at the resulting blood rush.

_Oops, I should get up more slowly._

When she regained her balance and looked around her room, she was amazed at what she saw.

_Hey, I don't remember my room ever looking this neat and clean._

Everything in her room seemed like it had been organized. All the books and notebooks on her desk were stacked neatly according to size and were arranged at sharp angles flush to the edges of her desk. Even her pens and pencils were put back into the holder. The clothes that had been laying around her room were gone. She went to the closet to open it. It seemed that all her clothes had been placed in the dirty hamper.

 _Hey, some of those clothes weren't 'dirty' enough yet Squall,_ she thought to herself while crossing her arms. _Okay, I guess my options for today's outfit will be limited._

She reached out and grabbed a light blue cotton dress off a hanger and she started to plan her day. Her mind was occupied with of all the things she had to do before being able to go up to Squall's office. Happy excitement ran through her.

"Don't worry Angelo, I won't forget to feed and walk you!" she yelled out to her dog as she readied to take a shower and get dressed for the day.

* * *

Rinoa smoothed out her hair and clothes before knocking on Squall's office door.

Although she'd tried to hurry, it was already after lunchtime.

"Come in," she heard muffled through the door.

She opened up the door and stepped inside while trying to suppress an excited smile.

"Hi Squall!" she said while walking over to his couch to plop down a bag full of books that she'd brought along.

Squall gave her a brief nod while he continued to read something on his computer. It apparently was important and required a lot of attention. Actually, it required his full attention, and that was why he hadn't noticed when she'd snuck up behind him. His face nearly smacked into his computer screen when she flung her arms around his shoulders happily in a tight hug. He recoiled at the surprise physical interaction and turned red in the face at her continued caresses. She didn't seem like she had any intention of stopping anytime soon.

"Rinoa, get off of me! I'm working..."

His eyes darted apprehensively from her to his closed door while she nuzzled her face into the back of his neck.

"...in my office... during business hours." he continued in a quiet and pleading tone while gripping his keyboard.

She removed her arms from his shoulders, and he immediately tried to straighten out his SeeD uniform. He looked down to make sure his clothing was in order.

 _Good luck trying to remove those wrinkles Squall. Imaginary wrinkles are the hardest to get rid of,_ she thought while suppressing a laugh at his discomfort.

"Okay, I'll just be over here. All the way over here. On the couch. Reading," she said while pointing across the room to a small couch near the doorway.

_Wow, he really got embarrassed at a little hug! I thought he was starting to loosen up. I guess I can't expect a miracle overnight._

He nodded at her while the blush on his face was starting to lessen. His head stayed lowered so he wouldn't have to make eye contact. He started to straighten his hair although it always looked slightly disheveled to begin with.

She went over to the couch to take a seat and read a book. She sat up straight, smoothed out her dress, and crossed her legs so she'd look like a proper lady in a business setting. She didn't want to distract or embarrass Squall. Well, she DID want to do those things, but she didn't want him to regret having asked her to his office.

After what felt like several hours reading a library book on the Sorceress Wars, but was actually only 30 minutes, she looked up at Squall. He was still quietly reading things and doing paperwork. It was so quiet she would have been able to hear a pin drop. She was glad that now their emotions had calmed down, it didn't seem like she could hear his thoughts anymore. It had been strange and intrusive, and she was happy that she didn't have to hear everything he thought. Mostly because he was thinking about boring Garden business. She wasn't completely sure what was the difference between being the commander or the headmaster was, or if any of the duties overlapped. She had a feeling Headmaster Cid dumped a lot on him.

_Poor Squall._

She continued wondering about Squall.

_I wonder if I can get him to hear my thoughts when I'm not feeling strong emotions._

She looked over at him with determined eyes. His attention was still on his computer screen.

_Squall! Squall! Look at me!_

He continued reading his screen, but he ran his hand through his hair as though he had an itch.

 _SQUALL!_ she yelled in her head.

He swatted at the air while reading as if there was a bug flying near him.

SQUALL! LOOK AT ME! SQUALL! LOOK AT ME! she thought as strongly as she could.

Now he looked up at her curiously with wide blue-gray eyes.

"Did you just say something?" he said with his attention fully on her now.

 _No, but I was thinking something,_ she thought with a smile.

Squall let out a sigh.

"Were you just doing something with my mind?"

"I was practicing sharing thoughts with you! It might come in hand to have it under control. Do you think I can do this with anybody or just you?"

"Wait, I thought you could only do this with me because I'm your knight. Have you been able to do this with other people?" he said quickly in a slightly jealous tone.

"I've only noticed it with you. Maybe I could plant thoughts in people's heads, but I think we're a two-way street because of the sorceress and knight bond."

"Two-way street? You think I could initiate this, or do I have to wait for you to allow it?"

"I guess we'll have to try to find out," she grinned at him. "Maybe you could try to surprise me another time and see if I hear anything you start with me."

He seemed lost in thought for a moment. The taps from his fingers reverberated through his heavy wooden desk. Without saying a word he reached into one of his desk drawers and retrieved a thick stack of well-worn Triple Triad cards. He tapped them against his desk to straighten them before setting them down.

"Somebody once suggested that I test you for psychic powers. Who knows what magical sorceress abilities you've recently acquired. Maybe you'll end up being a successful poker player and gambler. The card shark possibilities could be endless," he said drily.

Rinoa sat up straighter and looked over at him. She started to get off the couch to come closer to him, but he held out his hand to indicate that he wanted her to stay put. He took a card off the top of the deck and looked at it.

"Tell me what card I'm looking at."

"I don't think I can do that Squall."

"Just try."

Rinoa closed her eyes and concentrated. Squall sat silent and perfectly still like a big cat. Nothing came into her mind.

"I'm getting nothing Squall. I don't know what card it is."

He sighed.

"Wait," Rinoa interjected, "were you thinking the card's name in your head, or just looking at the picture of it?"

"I was looking at it," Squall answered.

"Maybe it would be easier for me if you were thinking the name out loud... um, out loud in your head... mentally," Rinoa stumbled while trying to explain.

"Okay, I'll do that," Squall nodded.

 _Shiva. Shiva. Shiva,_ he thought loudly.

"I got it! Shiva!" Rinoa yelled while clasping her hands together in front of her.

Squall nodded at her encouragingly with a small smile.

"Oh, you have the Shiva card! That's great! I didn't know you had it. How did you get it?" Rinoa said with a wide smile on her face.

"Nevermind. Let's do another card," Squall said quickly while avoiding her question.

He pulled out another card and looked at it with intense concentration. He purposely willed his mind to not think of what he had to trade to Zone in order to get the Shiva card.

Rinoa concentrated to hear what Squall was thinking, but she only heard intense silence. It was like he was avoiding thinking. After a few moments a brief glimpse of an image floated to her mind.

"Oh, I know that one! Wait, I have to remember the name! It's a big snake thing. I think it's called an anacondaur."

Squall looked up at her with his eyebrows raised.

"You're right Rinoa. Good job."

_Weird, I didn't have to forcibly think that at her. She was just able to see what I was seeing? That's great... or maybe not. This is getting very close and personal..._

Squall's thought was suddenly interrupted by his office door being slammed open as Selphie bounded in.

"Commander! I need your approval for some of the items needed at the Garden Social!"

Rinoa jumped at the sudden intrusion. Selphie noticed movement out of the corner of her eyes, and turned towards where Rinoa sat in the corner behind the door.

"Oh, hi Rinoa! I didn't know you'd be up here. Squall doesn't like being bothered while he's working. Was I... interrupting anything?" she said slyly with her eyelids half closed.

Squall grabbed his forehead while Rinoa blushed slightly.

"Oh no, I was just reading and..."

Selphie walked over to Squall once she noticed that his deck of Triple Triad cards were out. She walked over to stand behind him while peering down at the cards.

"Oh, were you playing Triple Triad by yourself Squall? I didn't know you could do that. Is there a solitaire version of this game? Well, if anybody could figure out a single player version of this card game, it'd be Squall," she said while putting her hands on her hips.

Squall let out a brief and breathy huff at Selphie's remark at his expense. He then decided to have some fun with her, but at her expense.

"I was just testing Rinoa's abilities Selphie. I think she might have ESP," Squall stated with a straight face.

Selphie leaned in curiously.

"ESP. Extrasensory Perception," he clarified for her. "The ability to sense information through means other than her five senses. Basically psychic."

Selphie bounced on the tips of her toes excitedly while clasping her hands and looking over at Rinoa.

"Oh, I knew it! Rinoa might have become psychic when she absorbed Edea's sorceress powers."

While Selphie was busy looking at Rinoa, Squall tilted his head to the side while giving Rinoa a playful look.

"Selphie, let's see if she can guess the cards I'm holding," Squall said.

Squall took three cards from his Triple Triad deck and held them up for only himself and Selphie to see.

_Rinoa, you can do this! Caterchipillar! Mersmerize! Cactaur!_

Rinoa grabbed the sides of her head and rubbed while humming and rocking herself. She pretended to act like she was concentrating psychically. Selphie's eyes widened in glee at her friend's concentration. She held her breath in rapt anticipation.

"Um... I'm feeling... maybe... almost... WAIT! I got it! Caterchipillar! Mesmerize! Cactaur!" Rinoa said while dropping her hands to her lap and smiling lopsidedly.

 _Good job Rinoa, although your acting is about as bad as Laguna's in The Sorceress' Knight movie._ Squall thought at her.

Selphie spun around the room excitedly, and then quickly grabbed some cards out of Squall's hands before walking over to Rinoa.

"Unbelievable! You got them all right! Okay Rinoa, try these cards now."

 _Squall! It won't work unless you are looking at them! I can only link with your mind, not hers! Get her to stop!_ Rinoa thought at Squall frantically.

"Okay Selphie, that's enough for now. We don't want to drain her powers. It's taxing on her system," Squall said authoritatively while taking his Triple Triad cards back from her.

"Oh Rinoa, your knight is looking out for your well-being, how romantic!" Selphie said. "He's so good at his job, and his other job, and his other job. Wait, how many jobs do you have now Squall? You're a SeeD, and the commander, and her knight, and..."

"Anyways Selphie," Squall said while ruffling his hair, "didn't you say something about the Garden Social?"

Selphie quickly forgot everything else when Squall mentioned the party she was planning.

"Oh! I brought a form for you to sign. I need a teeny-tiny bit of extra funds and I need your approval for it. We need way more balloons than this budget is going to buy us."

"Selphie, you need to learn to stay in budget. I'm not going to sign that," Squall said matter-of-factly while turning to his computer screen.

"Oh... I knew you were going to say that!"

She looked down at the floor sadly.

"Squall, do you know what you're going to wear to it? Are you just going to wear your SeeD uniform or something more individual looking?"

"Huh? I'm not going Selphie," Squall answered while not looking up from his computer screen.

Selphie turned around and looked at Rinoa, who was trying not to look saddened by Squall's response.

"Oh, I think you are going to go. It's required. You even signed the form stating that you'd go. The presence of the commander is both requested and REQUIRED!" Selphie continued.

Squall gave her a questioning look.

She pulled out the requisition form that he'd signed last month and placed it flat on his desk. She pointed to his large and elegant signature and then to the tiny fine print at the bottom that said his attendance was required as he was the Commander of Balamb Garden.

An irritated look flashed across his face before it faded away to a blankly resigned expression.

"Irvine asked me to go as his date Squall, WHO do you think you'll ask?" Selphie said loudly while holding her hands up in the air in an exaggerated manner.

Rinoa was becoming increasingly embarrassed by their discussion. She buried her face in her library book so she wouldn't have to look at Selphie and Squall.

"I'm assuming Rinoa would want to come with me... if I was being forced to go..." Squall said.

"Oh, you ASSUMED that's how she'd feel? Maybe you should ASK her to confirm your assumption! For all you know, she'd prefer to go with Seifer. Despite everything else about him, he's pretty good looking, and they used to date you know!" Selphie said even louder.

Squall cringed and looked down while blushing. He turned towards Rinoa and said, "um, you want to?"

"Does she want to do what Squall?" Selphie asked with her hands on her hips.

"Rinoa, would you like to go to the Garden Social with me?" Squall said while looking towards her shyly.

Although Rinoa's face was hidden behind a library book, Squall could see her nodding in agreement.

Selphie patted him on the back while saying, "see, was that so hard Squall?"

Squall was reaching his limit for Selphie, so he reached out and grabbed her paperwork with force.

"If I sign this form for more balloons would you leave my office?"

Selphie nodded while smiling. He continued to find the proper form before signing it with a heavy hand. Once it was signed, he thrust it back at her. She eagerly accepted it before turning to leave. While passing Rinoa on the couch she mouthed, "you can thank me later," and gave her a thumbs up.

Squall and Rinoa both let out a sigh of relief when Selphie slammed the door behind her. They turned away from each other to not have to deal with the awkward situation Selphie had forced on them.

Rinoa laid on the couch and turned away from Squall while reading her book. Some of her light cotton dress rode up and exposed her backside. Squall was bracing for the shock when he looked up, but he saw that she was wearing a pair of black spandex shorts under her dress.

_What is with Rinoa and wearing shorts underneath things?_

He shook his head and got back to work. Luckily she was unable to hear his thoughts anymore as they'd both closed off themselves to each other.

* * *

Rinoa woke up stiff. She stretched out her legs and noticed she was not on her couch in her room. She was laying on Squall's leather office couch. She turned over sleepily and got up slowly. The clock on the wall showed that two hours had passed since Selphie had been there. She stuck her legs out in front of her and shook them.

_Oops, I fell asleep. I didn't even realize I was tired. Selphie must get all her energy by draining the energy of everybody nearby._

She yawned.

_Poor Squall, he looks like he's been working the entire time. I need to stretch and I bet he needs a break._

She got off the couch slowly and the leather creaked underneath her. He didn't budge, unaware that she'd awoken. Yet again, she was able to softly pad behind him and take him by surprise.

"Squall, let's go outside for a bit. I need to stretch, and you could use a break and some fresh air."

"I don't have time for that, this needs to be done now," he replied without turning around.

"Squall, you need to take breaks or you'll stress yourself out so much you'll snap. I know you're my helpful knight, but I want to be able to help you too. And you need to take a break sometimes for your own good."

She walked around his chair so she was facing him.

"This is my job, and I have to do it well. Right now I have to review these incoming missions and decide whether or not to accept them. Lots of potential clients are depending on my decision, and a bad decision is life or death for my SeeDs," he replied.

"You can't make clear-headed decisions if you wear yourself down completely," Rinoa argued.

"I can handle it, don't worry," he said while not looking at her.

"Let's just take a little break. You can come back and do work even better than before once you get a little bit recharged."

"No," he said testily.

Rinoa reached out and took his hand firmly in hers.

 _Please?_ she thought at him.

Squall looked up at her face and was flooded with warmth and her concern.

He looked down at the floor before shaking his hair out of his eyes.

"Okay, just for a little bit," he replied while sighing.

She smiled down at him and gently pulled on his hand to get him to stand up. He let himself be pulled by Rinoa out of his office.

* * *

Cid and Edea walked through the grassy fields and stopped under the shade of a large tree. They could make out two figures in the distance moving through the fields in the bright sunshine. Although distance made it so they couldn't see the facial expressions of the couple running through the field, their movements conveyed a playful and relaxed mood.

"Squall seems to be getting along well," Cid stated with a proud smile. "He's a good boy, and he's going to be a fine man."

Edea gave Cid a soft smile while smoothing out her long dark hair. Her features were dappled with the sunlight that was filtering through the leafy trees.

"I think you've given him too many responsibilities."

"I didn't make him be Rinoa's knight. He did that on his own. And as him being made Balamb Garden Commander, well, he has the proper ability to think, act, and lead Edea. He's been groomed for this role. We've known since he was young that he would be the one to defeat Ultimecia and be a future leader. We didn't have that guarantee about any of the other children."

Edea remembered the odd occurrence at the orphanage many years ago. It was so strange to be near a young Squall and a future Squall at the same time.

"I didn't say he was incapable, but it's a heavy burden to place on someone so young. He's much younger than he looks and acts... and he's been through so much recently in a short amount of time. Maybe he needs to take a break to process things and..."

"Well, Rinoa will be there for him," Cid said while brushing off her concerns. "I'm sure they'll continue to figure things out."

He reached out to pat Edea's hand. She looked down at the grass weakly before looking back at the happy couple playing together in the sunlight like carefree children.

 _I hope they figure things out... I hope all this pressure won't burn him out even before he's old..._ Edea thought to herself while Cid put his large arm around her roughly and kissed the top of her head.


	13. Chapter 13

Selphie and Rinoa shielded their eyes from the bright sun while chatting. It was pleasantly hot and breezy outside and they'd enjoyed their leisurely afternoon walk to Balamb town. They'd started out from the front gate of Balamb Garden feeling fine, but the heat was starting to take its toll. It was going to be a relief when they got inside a cool, dark, and very nicely air-conditioned store. They stopped walking when they encountered a sign that had 'Seaspray Dress Shop' painted on it in curving white letters. On either side of the entrance sat two window displays full of clothing, shoes, jewelry, and other accessories.

Luckily for the ladies of Balamb Garden, there was at least one small boutique that catered to women's fashions. There was casual wear, but also some of the dresses were even of the more formal variety. Any female student that didn't want to take a train ride to do some clothes shopping ended up here. It was literally the only dress shop in town.

A rush of cool air greeted them as they entered the boutique. It was dimly lit and bursting full of colorful fabrics and shiny accessories on racks. They immediately began to search for the perfect dress for the Garden Social. Selphie more than once mentioned she wanted to get a great reaction out of Irvine. Rinoa didn't really know how she wanted Squall to react, or if he'd react at all. She couldn't imagine him having a different reaction dependant on the type of dress she chose. He wasn't a 'reaction' type of guy.

"Selphie, if this is a social, doesn't that usually mean it's kinda informal? Why are we trying to buy formal dresses?" asked Rinoa.

"Well, 'Garden Social' sounded pretty good, and the name 'Garden Festival' was already taken. What's wrong with a formal dress Rinoa, don 't you want to look good?" Selphie asked. "I mean, if you want to show up wearing denim overalls and a straw hat, go right ahead."

Selphie was lost in thought for a moment before a smile lit up her face. She punched her fist into her open hand.

"Actually, jean overalls and straw hats sound like fun. I should plan a country hoedown party! We could do square dancing... and have a barbeque cookout with grilled corn on the cob... play horseshoes... Oh, and Irvine finally wouldn't stand out so much!"

Rinoa was only half listening to Selphie's party planning while looking through racks of dresses. The soft dress materials brushed across her fingertips while she tried to find something blue. She was about to push aside a short yellow dress when Selphie lunged across her to grab it. Selphie took it off the rack and it held it up to herself. It was mostly yellow with some orange highlights and beading, and it flared at the bottom hem.

"What do you think of this one Rinoa?"

"Um, it looks like it'd be a little bit too short on you. You don't want anybody to see your underpants do you?"

"Oh yea, I should buy a nice matching pair of underpants in case anybody sees them. I would be so embarrassed if somebody saw my old everyday undies. Thanks for the idea!"

_Selphie should wear a pair of shorts underneath any dress or skirt that short,_ Rinoa thought while looking down at her usual short denim skirt and stretchy black shorts combo approvingly.

"I love the yellows and oranges in this one! It looks so happy, I think I'm gonna get it!" Selphie said while twirling.

The tinkle of bells could be heard as the boutique door opened. Quistis and Xu's silhouettes could be seen as they came inside from the bright Balamb sunshine.

"Quistis, you don't have to buy a formal dress for this party. Most of the men are going to wear their SeeD uniforms, why don't you too? That's what I'm going to do," Xu said.

Quistis made a light humming noise while tilting her head to the side. Her eyes were adjusting to the dimmer light of the boutique.

"I'm always wearing my SeeD uniform or my battle gear. I want to dress up," Quistis answered.

Rinoa looked up and saw Quistis and Xu coming her way. She angled herself behind Selphie.

"Oh hi guys! Want to do some dress shopping with us? It'll be fun!" Selphie smiled.

While Selphie continued to chat with Quistis and Xu, Rinoa continued to search for a dress. She took a step back while admiring a dress and accidentally bumped into someone. She quickly turned around and saw Ami, the library girl.

"Oops, sorry Ami. I didn't see you there," Rinoa said. "Were you looking for a dress too?"

Ami nodded at her. There weren't other places to buy dresses in Balamb, so it wasn't surprising to be running into people. Since the social was next Saturday, this made it a perfect storm to run into students from Garden.

Selphie was looking through some necklaces and other accessories when she looked up and saw Rinoa chatting with Ami. She pushed past Quistis and Xu to approach Ami.

"Oh hi library girl!" she said cheerily. "Looking for something cute to attract Zell huh?"

Ami started looking shy and embarrassed.

"Well, don't try too hard. The only thing he notices are hot dogs... WAIT! Just a second!"

Selphie started digging through some of the jewelry she'd been looking at.

"I think there were some casual novelty necklaces over here," Selphie explained.

She reached out and grabbed one saying "AHA! I found it!"

Selphie quickly spun around and skipped over to Ami while holding up a necklace.

"This will be perfect for you," Selphie explained.

Ami leaned in and looked at a necklace with a tiny hot dog charm on it.

"Oh, I don't think... um, that'll go with my formal dress..."

"Come on library girl, it's so cute. Look it even has a teeny-tiny streak of yellow mustard on it! And it'll catch Zell's eye for sure. Most likely he'll end up getting hungry and confused and give you a hickey... Yeah, that'll probably happen," Selphie nodded to herself.

Ami started to shake her head, but Selphie was determined to help her make a successful love match with Zell. She was trying to help, why wouldn't the library girl just let her!

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'll even buy it for you. Now that I'm a SeeD I have way more money that I even know what to do with!"

Selphie marched off to purchase it. Soon she came back with a little shopping bag with the hot dog necklace wrapped in pink tissue paper for Ami.

"Tell me how everything goes with Zell on Saturday!" Selphie winked.

Ami grabbed the shopping bag and mumbled her thanks while walking quickly to the exit. She didn't want to get forced into anything else. She could come back and look for a dress later with some of her friends.

While Selphie had been busy 'helping' the library girl. Quistis, Xu, and Rinoa were busy looking through dress racks.

Rinoa found an elegant looking red dress. It looked very sleek, and there was a long slit up the side.

"Quistis, this would look so good on you! Why don't you try it on?"

Quistis eyed the dress carefully. It certainly would be eye catching, but maybe it was a little too much for her. She had enough trouble with the Trepies when she was wearing her normal clothes.

"It would look so striking against your blonde hair," Rinoa said encouragingly.

Quistis nodded and decided to try it on just for fun. Why not? She didn't have to buy it. She took the dress from Rinoa and went to a dressing room. In a few moments Xu stuck her head behind the curtain to check on how Quistis was doing. A minute later Quistis stepped out.

The dress fit her well and accentuated her curves nicely. It looked like it had been made just for her. The paleness of her skin looked amazing with the lush red dress, and the slit just showed off her naturally long legs even more.

"Woooow!" breathed Rinoa. "You HAVE to get that dress! You look AMAZING!"

Quistis pushed some of her blonde hair behind her ears while looking down at herself.

"Oh, I don't know. It seems too form fitting, and it is restricting my movement somewhat. It's not very practical."

"It doesn't have to be practical, it's just a dance. It's not like you're going into battle wearing it," Rinoa said.

"You should get it Quisty. It's beautiful," Selphie chirped while walking towards them.

Selphie was carrying ridiculously tall and thin red stilettos which she'd found in the shoe section. She shoved them at Quistis.

"These go great with the dress. Try them on, I think they're your size," Selphie said while bouncing on the tips of her toes.

When Selphie got worked up about something it was best to let her get her way. Quistis took off her boots and slipped into the high heels.

"You're stunning," Selphie said while grabbing Quistis and walking her over to the floor length mirror that hung on the wall. "I think you have to buy these. I mean they look gorgeous. YOU look gorgeous!"

Quistis wasn't too sure about the whole outfit. The heels weren't comfortable and the dress was really restrictive. Her reflection looked more like a little girl's fashion doll than the usual Quistis Trepe, but she did look really good. The dress and shoes accented all the right features. She was a blonde bombshell!

"I guess I can be a little uncomfortable for a while. This dress is very nice," Quistis said while crossing her arms under her chest.

_Wow, I didn't think I even had that much cleavage! I'm definitely getting this dress and these shoes,_ Quistis thought to herself while peering over the edges of her glasses in complete disbelief.

"I guess I'll purchase these items," she said calmly.

_Okay, Selphie and Quistis already found their dresses. I better hurry up and find one,_ Rinoa thought to herself.

Rinoa turned with resolve towards the dress racks. Her arms plunged into the bundles of fabrics hoping to find something good. She reached out and grabbed onto something soft, flowing, and midnight blue.

_Oh, that's a nice color, hopefully it'll look okay._

She pulled the dress out and took a look at it. It was knee length with a V-neck and the skirt portion flared out softly from a natural waistline. It looked like it would flatter her hourglass figure and contrast well with her pale skin. The light layers of chiffon looked like they would swing beautifully in a breeze or while dancing. Rinoa was excited.

"I'm gonna try this one on. Wish me luck everybody!"

"Good idea Rinoa, we should try on our dresses!" Selphie said.

Selphie and Rinoa each went into a dressing room. After a minute they both emerged from behind the curtains looking happy and beautiful.

Quistis and Xu nodded approvingly at their choices. Selphie grabbed onto Rinoa and made her do a graceful twirl. Her midnight blue dress flared delicately around her knees. Selphie did a spin and her short yellow and orange dress highlighted her petite frame and energetic personality.

"Yes! We found great dresses! Let's go buy these, and then treat ourselves to some ice cream cones. We deserve it!" Selphie sang happily.

"I don't know about ice cream. What if I gain weight and I can't fit into this dress on Saturday?" Quistis said worriedly.

Selphie aimed an incredulous look towards Quistis' tall, lean, and lithe body.

"Quistis look at you! You aren't going to gain any weight, and we're always training. We're SeeDs! We work hard! We play hard! We eat hard!"

Selphie started ushering them towards the woman at the sales counter for them to make their purchases. Once they had their dresses carefully placed in tissue lined shopping bags, they exited the cool shop and were once again in the hot Balamb sunshine.

"Mmmm, nice cold ice cream on a hot day!" Selphie said while smiling.

She looked around to see that the library girl was gone.

"Oops, I forgot she'd already left. Well, I guess she can't get ice cream with us then. HEY! If she'd stuck around I could have taken her over to Zell's house and introduced her to his mom. I bet she would have loved that! Oh well, next time then," Selphie said.

Rinoa shook her head at Selphie's logic.

"Well, what are we waiting for. Let's get some ice cream," Rinoa said with a smile.

The four women continued down one of Balamb's cobblestone side streets towards the only ice cream parlor in town. They excitedly discussed their plans for the night of the Garden Social. Selphie was very proud of the work she'd done to set it up. She hoped everybody was going to have great time. She was counting on it.

* * *

The night of the Garden Social finally arrived. Balamb Garden's ballroom was once again decorated for a dance. Although it was not as formally elegant as it was for the SeeD Graduation Dance, it was still a sight to behold. Selphie's touch could be seen everywhere, in the choice of decorations, the type of food and beverages, and the entertainment. Clusters of white, silver, and gold translucent balloons were all around. Some of the balloons even glistened with glitter and confetti inside them. White colored floral arrangements graced every table, lending the air a fresh fragrance. The overall atmosphere was one of fun and celebration. Selphie had done a good job. Hopefully all her festival 'volunteers' were able to enjoy it as much as she was.

Although Balamb Garden housed students from the ages of 5-20, the only people allowed at this evening's social were in upper level classes. Not to mention the full-fledged SeeDs and staff that were in attendance. Selphie thought it was a shame the little kids couldn't enjoy this. She resolved to herself to throw them a party at some point too. Maybe they could have a bounce house and pony rides, they'd like that. Most of the youngest cadets were orphans, they needed some fun in their lives. Selphie Tilmitt lived for fun, and she wanted others to be as happy as she was. So super-duper happy and busy that she didn't have time to think about the gruesome particulars of being a young mercenary.

While she was thinking these things she quickly looked down and straightened her short yellow dress, making sure it was in firmly set in place. The dress was matched by yellow ballroom dance shoes that she'd purchased. They looked nice, but they had excellent shock absorption. She'd be able to bounce around the dance floor all night without getting tired. It was a strategic choice.

She looked up and saw Squall and Rinoa dancing by themselves in a dark corner of the ballroom to a waltz. The sweet and unguarded look on Squall's face was priceless. Selphie was glad she had helped them have this moment. They looked completely at ease as they gazed into each other's eyes oblivious to anyone else but each other. Adorable.

Although Selphie thought it was weird that they didn't seem like they were talking to each other at all. That was okay though, Squall could be pretty weird, Rinoa too actually. Being a teen runaway and living in a train was pretty strange, so was dating Seifer, and always hanging around alone in Balamb Garden's library. Before she came to Garden, her only friends were the inept Timber Owls and her dog. Weird.

Anyways, Rinoa had yet to thank her for forcing Squall to attend, but she knew she must be appreciative. Any day now she would receive a note that would thank her many times over and would go something like:

'Selphie,

You're the greatest! Thanks for getting Squall to take me to the dance! I had the best time, and it's all thanks to you! I can't believe I have the greatest friend in the world! You're the best!

\- Rinoa ( ^ _ ^ )'

A shy and introverted guy like Squall needed some prodding for a night like this. He would never reach out and take hold of anything that would make him happy if somebody didn't give him a push. A very hard and painfully obvious push according to Selphie.

While Selphie was lost in thought, Irvine sauntered up to her side in that lazy and relaxed way of his. He was wearing a nice suit, while still having his signature cowboy hat and boots on. He peered at Squall and Rinoa along with Selphie. They saw as Squall reached out and took a small white flower from a floral arrangement and tucked it behind Rinoa's ear after a dance ended. He only had eyes for her. It was sweet, but he would not be happy if he knew they were watching him.

Suddenly their Squall-watching was interrupted when a red-haired Balamb cadet walked by wearing a black mini dress. Irvine's eyes lingered on her backside as she walked across the room to meet up with some of her friends. Selphie's mouth fell open, but then quickly shut in anger. She elbowed him hard in the ribs causing him to double over and look directly into Selphie's eyes.

"Hey! Why can't we be more like them?!" she asked while pointing at Squall and Rinoa. "And less like this!" she said while pointing at his face.

"Darlin', what did I do?" he said defensively with his hands up in the air.

He put his arm around Selphie and looked down at her lovingly for a minute to console her. But he quickly allowed his eyes to continue wandering the ballroom looking for lovely ladies once he thought she'd been placated. Irvine thought he was being discreet, but in reality Selphie just didn't want to ruin the nice atmosphere of the party she'd spent so much time planning. She'd deal with Irvine later. He thought everybody had a bad memory because of GFs, but she'd show him how well she could remember events.

While Selphie was trying not to glower at Irvine, the atmosphere at the party quickly changed. The air had gone from warm and cheerful to cold and tense. Nearly everybody looked towards the entrance of the ballroom. Three figures were standing tall as they arrived. Seifer Almasy strode into the ballroom with Raijin and Fujin at his side. None of them appeared to have dressed up for the occasion. Seifer's gray coat was as tattered as before, but he had become much more tanned than he was the last time anybody saw him. His appearance at the party was uncomfortable to say the least.

Nobody did or said anything until Quistis decided to take control of the situation. She wasn't an instructor anymore, but she still felt protective of the younger students at Garden. She marched up to Seifer and met him eye to eye. Her formidable battle stance was only slightly lessened by the fact that she wore a sleek red dress and heels instead of her usual salmon colored battle gear with her whip coiled at her side.

"I don't think you were invited here," she said coldly while putting her hands on her curvy hips.

"Yes I was. The messenger girl sent me an invitation through Cid."

He jerked his head over to where Selphie was standing to get her attention. He nodded at her and she waved cheerily back at him.

"Well, I don't think you are WELCOME here."

"Who is going to be able to make me leave Quistis? My only true rival seems to have his hands pretty occupied at the moment," he flicked his vibrant blue-green eyes towards Squall and Rinoa.

Quistis was shocked by his bold statement and a blush bloomed on her cheeks. She quickly turned her head to look for Squall. She scanned the room frantically before spotting him. Despite Seifer's insinuation about Squall's behavior, he was merely dancing with Rinoa elegantly in the far corner of the ballroom. Squall and Rinoa were both so preoccupied with each other that they hadn't seen Seifer and his posse enter. She turned to look at Seifer smirking down at her. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Actually Squall and I are on friendlier terms than you would think. Sometimes we meet up in secret, and other times we call each other up at night to chat. We're both gunblader sorceress' knights. We understand each other. We're real friendly," he whispered at her.

Quistis didn't know what to make of what he was saying. He had a way of exaggerating the truth or just imaginatively inventing stories. He walked closer to her, but she stood her ground. She would not be intimidated by the giant blond menace. That would be disgraceful. It was bad enough that her instructor's license had been stripped, she wouldn't be stripped of her dignity in public as well. Her fingers itched to have a hold of her whip, if only she'd brought it to the dance, she could be whipping the insolence out of him right now.

"You need... to lighten up instructor!" he said while sweeping his arm to the side and smiling lightly.

His break in tension confused her. Seifer suddenly grabbed onto Quistis and pushed her onto the dance floor as the next song started. Her impossibly tall high heels and tight dress had her at his mercy. Stilettos were not a good choice. They made her legs look great, but her stability was severely compromised. If only she had her sensible combat boots on, she wouldn't have been so easy to push around. They stumbled around for a few moments before he got her to try waltzing with him.

"Let me go Seifer," she said forcefully. "Get that filthy gray coat away from me!"

He ignored her complaints, and kept a steady grip on her. Actually, if he let her go, she might have toppled over. Her balance was completely thrown off. She was contemplating physically retaliating against him when they accidentally slammed into Nida and his date.

"Sorry man!" Seifer said loudly, "my partner is very uncoordinated!"

Nida gave him a harsh look while Seifer twirled Quistis away. She was surprised by how light on his feet he was. Her arched blonde eyebrows showed her astonishment.

"I took all the same dance and etiquette lessons as everybody else here," he said while smirking at her bewildered and angry expression. "And you need to be pretty coordinated to master a gunblade. Especially when you use only one hand. Yep, I'm both graceful and strong. Hey, I've heard you get pretty turned on by guys with gunblades, is that true?" he asked while leaning down towards her angry face.

Quistis blushed. The heat in her face was mostly due to rage, but also a tiny bit of it was due to his obnoxious and captivating... charm? She mentally shuddered at the thought.

"Oh look up there, is that a shooting star?" Seifer asked earnestly while his gem-like eyes flicked towards the glass ceiling.

Quistis looked towards the glass ceiling of Balamb Garden's ballroom. She saw absolutely nothing of interest and turned back to Seifer.

"You really are gullible Instructor Trepe," Seifer said with seriousness.

He whipped her around and did a dramatic dip while the waltz ended. He pretended to drop her, but pulled her up at the last moment. As soon as he let her go, she strode over to Xu with her eyes trained backwards on him like he was a large predatory animal. She wiped her hands on her dress to make herself feel clean again.

"How romantic! Irvine, why can't you be more like him?" Selphie said while pointing at Seifer. She bounced up and down on her toes in excitement.

"Seifer?!" Irvine asked incredulously. He tilted his cowboy hat back as he looked down at her.

"And why aren't you wearing your SeeD uniform? That military look would be so much nicer than your 'formal cowboy' attire. Seriously, is that a bolo tie?"

"Selphie, I keep tellin' ya I'm not a SeeD."

"But we met you at Galbadia Garden while we were on our SeeD mission and I just assumed that..."

"Yea darlin', I know it was kinda confusin' and all but..."

Irvine's nonsensical explanation of why he wasn't a SeeD was interrupted by Laguna coming up to them.

"Sir Laguna!" Selphie yelped excitedly. Her eyes started to glisten dreamily.

Laguna nodded goofily with his hands up while looking at the floor.

"Hi guys, thanks for inviting me and Kiros and Ward. But Selphie, I thought you said Squall specifically asked me to come here to spend some time with him. I just made eye contact with him from the across the room, and I gotta say he looked completely surprised that I was here at all."

"Oh well..." Selphie fumbled, trying to come up with a good excuse for why she fibbed.

"And why am I the only person here in a costume? I thought this was a costume party."

"Oh, you must have misunderstood..."

"But you were the one who called me up and said it was a costume party and suggested I wear something similar to the costume I wore in The Sorceress' Knight movie," Laguna said while gesturing to his attire.

He was wearing a gleaming silver suit of armor with small bronze and gold highlights on the chest. His dark hair tumbled over his shoulders, and he had a prop gunblade hanging at his side. He stood out for wearing a costume, but also for looking so handsome in it. He had garnered many stares from people in the crowd.

"I look like an idiot, Squall must hate me even more now!" he said nervously while pushing some of his slightly graying dark hair behind one ear.

_My son is gonna hate me forever! I'm so sorry Raine..._

Selphie walked up to him and tapped her fingers on his costume's metal breastplate.

"Oh no, you don't look like an idiot at all. You look really good... really, really GOOD Sir Laguna," she said softly while starting to lean into him for a clingy embrace. Her little hands latched onto him with a surprisingly firm hold.

Laguna's leg started to shake, one of his nervous leg cramp sessions was beginning to start. His face gave Selphie a goofy and flustered smile. Even though he was incredibly uncomfortable, he didn't want to hurt the young girl's feelings. Especially since she was a friend of his son's. Irvine quickly reached out to snatch the back of Selphie's dress to pull her off Laguna. He gave the older man an apologetic look while he wrapped his lanky arm around Selphie's petite frame firmly.

_Women sure love Laguna. I have to figure out how he does it_ , Irvine thought to himself.

"Selphie why don't we go dance," Irvine suggested while continuing to pull her farther away from a grateful Laguna.

Laguna was relieved when Selphie was out of arm's reach, but he quickly was occupied again. A pair of bright eyes were peering at him from the ballroom's entrance. Apparently one of the younger junior cadets had wandered away from the dorms to look at the balloons, pretty dresses, and dancing. The little girl was quickly mesmerized by Laguna's costume, and came up to him.

"You look like a fairytale knight. Are you gonna save a princess?" the little girl asked.

"Oh, I don't think anybody needs any saving tonight," Laguna answered while smiling down at her.

"Are you gonna dance with a princess?" she asked.

Laguna tilted his head to the side while touching his face tentatively and said, "um, yea sure, why not?"

He gestured for her to come closer. She edged forward slowly, then he took her by the hands and lifted her onto the tops of his feet.

"Would you like to dance?" he asked her.

She nodded her head at him.

If Laguna wearing a bright and shiny knight's costume hadn't been drawing enough attention, the fact that he was dancing with a little cadet in pajamas was surely eye catching. Irvine, Selphie, Quistis, and Xu came closer to look.

_Laguna tries so hard, too bad it comes across as goofiness,_ Quistis thought. _Squall needs to give him a chance._

"What a sweet man," she said out loud with feeling.

"Yea, how'd a sweet guy like that end up with a son like Squall?" Xu commented irritably.

"Irvy, why can't you be more like Sir Laguna," Selphie whined while poking him in the ribs.

Irvine sighed.

Edea rushed over when she saw Laguna dancing with the little cadet. Once their dance was over she took her hand to walk her back to her dorm. Laguna knelt down with a flourish while saying goodnight to the little girl. She giggled and waved goodbye to him.

Kiros and Ward had just come back from the bathroom after changing out of their Ruby Dragon costume to see Laguna ending his dance. They'd only been gone a few minutes, and they'd missed all the fun. Life with Laguna was never boring.

"Laguna, why don't you go change out of your costume?" Kiros said.

"I didn't bring anything else to wear!"

"I told you to," Kiros admonished him.

Ward just shook his head sadly while Laguna gave them a lopsided smile while shrugging.

As Laguna, Kiros, and Ward were talking to each other. Zell walked by with the library girl and her giggling friends following closely behind. He was regaling them with a tale of his bravery during the war. Despite his erratic hand motions, he looked quite handsome in his SeeD uniform. His well-gelled spiked blond hair and face tattoo contrasted sharply with the military uniform.

"We were all trapped at D-District Prison without our weapons, and it looked pretty hopeless. But I always have my weapons with me," he said as he held up his fists. "And then I punched the Galbadian soldiers right in their faces like this!"

Zell did a forceful punch that he aimed right at one of the balloon decorations. As his fist made contact, the balloon popped and rained glitter and confetti down on Zell and Ami the library girl.

"Oops," Zell said sheepishly with his face and hair covered in glitter.

He tried to get the glitter off himself, but he only spread it around more. Ami looked embarrassed at being the center of attention and covered in glitter. Zell reached out awkwardly to brush some glitter off her, but he only mashed it into her dress material more. Ami looked like she was going to die of embarrassment, and it didn't help that Zell was touching her so much.

"Wow, this isn't coming off. It's like it'll totally be stuck to us forever," Zell said while scratching his head.

Selphie and Irvine looked on at Zell frantically trying to de-glitter himself and Ami. Any moment now he was going to accidentally touch her boobs, and they'd all hear a scream. They couldn't turn away, any second, almost, any moment now...

The library girl let out a little scream.

"Aren't you going to wish that I was more like Zell?" Irvine said in an annoyed voice while looking down at Selphie with half-opened eyes.

"No, why would I do that?" Selphie answered truthfully.

Irvine relaxed a bit. At least he was higher in her estimation than Zell and his wacky and exuberant antics.

"Although... Zell is pretty funny..." she giggled. "And he's got GREAT muscle definition... and he's so nice to his mom... and..."

Irvine sighed while pulling his cowboy hat over his eyes.

* * *

Later in the evening the music switched from orchestral to Selphie's mix of dance-pop tunes. The party was now going to change tone and get a little bit wild.

Squall took that as his cue to escape the dance floor, especially as more people started to crowd the area to bounce and shake to the music. It wasn't that he didn't like the concept of dancing. He liked it as much as any other guy who'd been forced to take lessons all his life. A well executed waltz was one thing, it had specific steps and rules to follow. He was used to military precision. But a dance party with pop music blaring was too far. All the bouncing and erratic noise. He wanted to hide even more than usual.

Even though they were at the edges of the dance floor, he still was getting overwhelmed. He got even quieter and started to fidget. Rinoa noticed his discomfort.

_Want to go get out of here for some fresh air?_ Rinoa thought at him.

He nodded at her. She took hold of his arm and led him out onto the stone balcony. Luckily it was empty. Squall breathed a sigh of relief.

_At least out here we won't run into Seifer,_ Rinoa thought. _Did you see him?_

_Yea, I saw him posing for a picture with Laguna in a shiny sorceress' knight costume. Laguna's gunblade was a prop, but Hyperion definitely wasn't. I think they cleared a portion of the dance floor,_ he thought with a smile.

_Aren't you worried with Seifer here?_

_No. He isn't being controlled by Ultimecia anymore. He's back to being the same obnoxious guy as before. He might beat somebody up, but he's not going to kill anybody._

_I don't know why Laguna was in costume, but he looked pretty handsome. I think you look even handsomer in your SeeD uniform, although I may be a bit biased. I'm really glad you came,_ she thought while smiling up at him.

_I was forced to come here, and I wear my uniform a lot,_ he replied mentally.

_Yea, but I have such found memories of seeing you in this uniform in this very ballroom._

He grabbed onto the edge of the stone balcony and looked out into the distance.

_You make that sound like it was years ago instead of months ago._

_Well, it feels like years ago. A whole LOT has happened to us since then. You're so different._

She looked over at him, and then down at her outstretched palm. A brief magical spark lit there.

_And I'm really, really different,_ she thought.

Rinoa heard a rough breath catch in Squall's throat. It was a laugh probably.

_You're still Rinoa_ , he thought while looking back at her.

She gave him a smile that was filled with love.

_You're still overly idealistic, opinionated, and pushy..._

She scrunched up her nose and frowned at him.

_... and sweet and kind and loving... Being pushy isn't always a bad thing... sometimes people need pushing,_ he finished with a small smile.

He reached out for her hand and pulled her into his chest in a warm embrace. The little white flower that Squall had placed in her hair earlier blew away in the breeze.

_Hey I'm angry at you!_ Rinoa thought at him. _You're a big mean sarcastic jerk!  
_

Squall started to play lightly with the ends of her dark hair while she stood there stiffly. He smiled widely out into the cool night air before leaning down and kissing the top of Rinoa's head. Her muscles started to relax gradually.

_You're just lucky you're so good looking. If you weren't so cute I wouldn't let you get away with teasing me like that. Actually you should thank Laguna for inheriting his good DNA._

Squall stood rigidly when thinking of Laguna.

_I'm trying to have a moment here. Can we stop thinking about Laguna's DNA?_

Rinoa forcefully pushed out of Squall's embrace and scrunched her nose up at him again.

_See you don't like being teased either!_

They both turned out over the balcony to avoid looking at each other. Once again they were slightly irritated with one another. In between all their squabbling and the sorceress knight bond, it was like they were basically married even though they'd only known each other for several months.

The close mind link they'd been sharing all night was weakening.

"I was having a nice time, I don't want to fight," Rinoa said out loud with her hair and midnight blue dress whipping around her in the breeze.

"Then don't fight me," Squall replied.

Rinoa sighed while saying, "let's just start over. Let's go back to talking sweetly and cuddling."

"No," Squall said quietly with his pride hurt. He continued to look over the balcony and not at Rinoa.

Rinoa's eyes widened at his complete refusal of her. Passionate anger started to bubble within her. If Squall had been paying attention, he might have been able to see a barely visible outline of wings sprouting from her back before they faded away.

"Oh, I think you'll change your mind in a minute!" she said while grabbing onto his bare hand on the balcony railing. She peeled his hand off the stone railing while turning him to face her. Some of her anger was already seeping into Squall's subconscious.

"Squall, pay attention to me!"

"Make me..." he said coldly.

"Fine!"

_I don't remember Rinoa's eyes looking like that before. Maybe it's the lighting out here,_ Squall thought to himself right before Rinoa's hands reached up to grab his face.

An odd searing sensation flooded his senses. He tried to pull his eyes away from hers, but he could not. It was like he had lost control of them.

_Uh-oh,_ Squall thought.

Squall tried to take back control of the situation. He frantically tried to push calming thoughts into her. Anything to soothe her explosive anger away. A memory of Angelo playing happily. The first time they met. Being in space together.

Rinoa's anger started to fade, and she saw the fearful look in Squall's eyes. She quickly snatched back her hands as he blinked down at her. He wobbled and sank down with his back propped up against the balcony railing. Rinoa slid down next to him. They took a minute to catch their breath. Rinoa was filled with shame. How did a little lover's quarrel turn into the beginnings of magical mayhem?

"That was scary. Is fighting like that normal?" she asked timidly with her face in her hands.

"I don't know. I've never had a girlfriend before," Squall said flatly while remaining perfectly still.

Rinoa let out a brief breath of air that quickly turned into an empty laugh at Squall's attempt at humor.

"I guess I have to work harder at controlling myself. Thanks for the help Squall," Rinoa said with her eyes starting to water.

"It's fine. Don't worry. We'll both figure it out," he said while lightly waving his hand in the air.

He could hear her sniffling, so he looked up. Wet trails of tears were streaking down her face.

"It's fine. It's fine. Don't feel bad. It's just a quirk we have to work on."

Rinoa continued to sniffle.

Squall sighed while reaching out to pull her into his lap. He patted her back awkwardly while gently laying her head against his shoulder. He sighed while petting her hair.

Rinoa flung her arms around his shoulders and buried her wet face into his neck. She had been passionately angry before, but now she was just passionate. Tears were soaking into the shoulder of his SeeD uniform. She reached up and planted salty wet kisses all over the sides of his face.

"I'm so sorry! I'm sorry about everything!"

"It's okay. It's not your fault. The sorceress powers seem to magnify your emotions. We'll learn how to deal with that," Squall replied matter-of-factly while he pretended to ignore her attempts to smother his face with kisses.

She pulled back and her crying started to lessen. She used the backs of her hands to wipe away her tears. Squall offered the sleeves of his SeeD uniform for her to dry her face on.

"Don't worry about this. Nobody saw," Squall said reassuringly. "The music is too fast and loud."

Rinoa sighed while grasping his sleeve tightly.

"Sometimes I get so overwhelmed thinking about all the things that have happened to the world and ourselves lately. If last year somebody had told me that I'd be sitting on the lap of Balamb Garden's Commander after assaulting him with my new sorceress powers at a party... well, I wouldn't have believed it. And then I'd also be disgusted that I was sitting on some old man's lap," Rinoa said.

"OLD man?" Squall asked in a low voice while tilting his head to the side.

"Well, why would I have assumed the Commander of Balamb Garden would have been a cute YOUNG man? That really doesn't make a lot of sense. This place is kinda crazy. You probably just don't realize it because you were raised here," Rinoa said dismissively.

"Oh, I'm aware, very aware," Squall said. "My entire life has been under the jurisdiction of Cid Kramer. Trust me, I know none of this is normal, even if this is the only life I've ever known," he said while trying to readjust himself on the hard stony ground.

It was not a comfortable place or position, and Rinoa's added weight was not helping. He certainly wasn't going to tell her that though. Her emotions were in an unstable state tonight. Pain was a constant in his life anyway.

Rinoa leaned into him softly unaware of his discomfort. She reached up to stroke his smooth face.

"Poor Squall. Cid Kramer has been his parent, headmaster, employer, and knight advisor... and not doing a good job at any of those roles. Poor Squall spending his whole life missing his mother and sister. Only finding comfort in his rigorous gunblade training... and his cute furry little jacket," she smiled at him.

Squall shook the hair out of his eyes nervously. This was hitting a little too close to home.

"So you like cute furry little things? Did you secretly want me to get a cat from the Balamb Animal Shelter? I noticed all the cats you picked out were black, isn't that one of your favorite colors? Is that why you did all that research for me?" Rinoa asked.

Squall cleared his throat nervously.

"Like I said, I just want you to be happy here at Garden. I just thought that was what you were wanting..."

He trailed off when Rinoa leaned in and kissed his warm cheek tenderly. She could feel his rapid pulse through his neck.

"I also want to be happy here at Garden... with you... I was wanting to spend more time with you, and now I am." She punctuated her sentiment by leaning in and kissing his nose before sighing and looking up at the dark sky. "So yes Squall, I am much more happy at Garden than I was before. Thank you. Although, they'll probably start sending you on SeeD missions again soon, and then I'll be lonely yet again. Do you know what mission you'll be sent on next?" Rinoa asked while looking up at him with her large brown eyes.

"Wait a second!" she said while remembering. "Are we ever going to free Timber?" Rinoa asked while slapping a hand to her forehead.

"Um, well, technically I haven't completed my first mission yet. The contract I have with you is still in progress. So um... we still have that unfinished business... together..." Squall stuttered.

"When is that going to happen? We should really hurry up and do it. I mean I really want to be able to liberate Timber soon. I don't want to wait too much longer," Rinoa said while leaning closer on his lap.

"Um, excuse me?" Squall asked with his face turning beet red. He tried to push her away slightly.

"Squall, what's wrong with your face? Is it something I said?"

Squall ignored her questions about his flustered face.

"Um, if everything goes well, I'm assuming we'll get around to it eventually... later in our relationship..."

"Wait, I'm confused what are we talking about here exactly?" Rinoa asked with a furrowed brow.

Squall pointed up at the dark sky while trying to distract Rinoa.

"Is that a shooting star?" he asked suddenly while pointing up at the sky and helping them both get to their feet. His legs ached with relief when he stood up. His SeeD uniform had only gotten a little bit dirty as he had been seated on the stone balcony floor.

"Where? I don't see it." Rinoa said while pointing at the sky questioningly. She brushed out her dark blue chiffon dress while stretching out her legs. Her large glistening brown eyes looked at Squall imploringly before turning back to search the night sky.

_Sorry Rinoa,_ Squall thought to himself.

Squall reached out and took Rinoa's hand while kissing the top of her head guiltily. They both scanned the night sky together in silence, looking for a meteor shower that was not happening. Imaginary meteor showers were the hardest to see, and would take a lot of very quiet concentration, at least Squall hoped it would. So very quiet that he could avoid all further questions about liberating Timber for the time being.

_Seifer and his stupid dirty jokes! Now that's all I can think about! That guy always seems to have the last laugh. Whatever._

Squall shook out his unruly brown mane of hair while narrowing his eyes up at the stars. Out of the corner of his eye he glanced down at Rinoa's pale face glowing in the reflected moonlight. Although the last few months had been a nightmare whirlwind of action and emotions, he was glad he'd met somebody who cared for him. The future didn't have any guarantees, but if somebody could put up with his aloof attitude and damaged personality, there was still hope.

Whether you are a lion tamer or you're just trying to befriend a feral neighborhood stray cat, people that try to tame wild animals have to learn to be very, very patient. Any library pet book would tell you the same thing.

The End 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (There's going to be a little epilogue after this. So keep an eye out for that post.)
> 
> This was my first chapter fic, so thanks for sticking with me to the end! Sorry about the all typos I'm sure I missed. I never did any creative writing in school, so I'm sorry for all my amateurish mistakes I'm not even aware of. I was really trying to make something cute and fun here. Thank you everybody for reading. And thank you for reviewing! I loved your reviews, they were so cute! I don't know if I would have done so many chapters if I hadn't gotten so many nice reviews. It's hard to write something if you don't know if anybody is even liking it. I thought this would only be 5 chapters or so. Thanks for the encouragement!
> 
> ( ^ _ ^ )
> 
> Oh, and I love Final Fantasy VIII and all its characters, but I don't own any of it. They belong to Squaresoft or SquareEnix or something. This disclaimer applies to all my fanfics. I'm just a big fan making stuff for fun.


	14. Epilogue

Brilliant white clouds moved through the crisp blue sky at a leisurely pace. Rinoa smiled up at the bright clouds while a fresh breeze made her dark hair flutter around her face messily. Once again she was seated on a concrete planter in the Quad reading alone. She tried to push some of her hair behind her ears so she could get back to enjoying her book. She'd been diligently studying up on sorceresses, knights, and wars, so she didn't feel guilty when she occasionally indulged in a sappy fairytale romance.

It wasn't too long ago that doing this very activity would have left her feeling lonely and out of place, but she'd worked out some of her issues. She was feeling better, and she felt that she had a purpose. Learning to control her sorceress powers along with Squall was important, and she was committed to doing her best. Although overwhelming at times, she didn't feel like she was drifting lost at sea anymore.

She turned her head back to her romance book.

_When are these two characters going to shut up and kiss already? They're making me crazy! Can't they see that they're meant for each other? Dummies..._

Rinoa saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see that Ami the library girl had just entered the Quad. Ami looked around searching for someone until she finally spotted Rinoa and started briskly heading in her direction.

_Oh, it's Ami. I haven't seen her lately. I wonder if I could get a little part-time job helping out at the library. That would be fun._

Ami was wearing her cadet uniform and her dark hair was styled back into her usual braid. As she approached, Rinoa could see a new addition to her standard style. A little hot dog necklace was dangling from a chain that was fastened around her neck.

"Oh hi Ami!" Rinoa said while dropping her book beside her on the concrete planter to give Ami her full attention.

"Hey Rinoa, I was looking for you," Ami said while looking slightly uncomfortable.

Rinoa stood up to face her. She wondered why she looked concerned.

"I was just going to send out notices for library fines when I saw that you had some very overdue books and movies. Usually students and staff members get reminders in their emails, but I don't think you have an official Balamb Garden email here. I'm sure I could put in your own personal email so you'd get notices too," Ami explained.

"Fines?" Rinoa tried to clarify.

She thought back to the pet book she'd checked out of the library, but she'd returned that. She'd renewed some of her sorceress books too.

"There must be a mistake, I returned those books," Rinoa said confidently.

"Here's a printout with the materials and fines," Ami said while handing her a sheet of paper.

Rinoa's eyes settled on the list.

_Oops! I lent some of these to Squall and then forgot about them. Wow, that's a huge fine on the movies! I feel so stupid! I have barely any responsibility here, and then I even messed that up. Oh, I don't want Squall to find out how disorganized I am!_

Rinoa clutched the printout in her hands and started racing back towards the main hub of Garden. She was going to sneak into Squall's apartment and find those books and movies before he found out about her mistake.

Ami was left standing stunned by the concrete planter.

"Rinoa, you forgot your book!" she called out after her.

Ami reached down to pick up the romance book. She didn't think Rinoa would want to get a fine on this one too. Ami could get it back to her later. As she curiously flipped through its pages her eyes widened.

_Wow, I didn't think a sweet girl like Rinoa would be reading anything like this!_

Ami took a seat on the planter and started to read.

* * *

By the time Rinoa got to the dorms, she was out of breath. Her stamina had greatly improved because of all her training with Squall, but she'd been sprinting. As she neared the corridor where Squall's apartment was, she passed Selphie.

"Hey Rinoa, what's wrong?" Selphie asked with concern on her face.

Rinoa didn't just run around for fun, and Selphie was worried.

"I have to get something out of Squall's apartment. I accidentally forgot to return some stuff to the library and now I have a ton of fines."

Selphie nodded her head while smiling. That wasn't too bad, nothing to worry about. Actually she didn't know why Rinoa looked so worked up about something so trivial. It was no big deal, it wasn't like anybody was going die.

"I feel kinda stupid that I forgot about the library books, and I don't want Squall to find out. Can you keep a lookout in the hallway when I'm inside? Just let me know if you see somebody coming."

"Okay! I'd love to be your lookout," Selphie said with a little bounce and a cute fist pump.

Rinoa swiped her keycard and slowly entered Squall's apartment while leaving the door slightly open to listen for Selphie. She spent some time surveying the living room for the books. As usual, everything looked neat and clean. There wasn't clutter anywhere. With everything in its place, it was easy to see that the library materials were not in this room. She took a peek in his kitchen just in case. Nothing was in there. She peered towards his bedroom. Rinoa knew Squall liked his privacy, and she was surprised he'd ever bent the rules and given her keycard access to his apartment. She wanted to be respectful and not be intrusive, but the library stuff was probably in there somewhere. She'd be in and out of there in under a minute.

_Oh, I'll just be really quick! It'll be okay. He won't know..._

Rinoa walked into his bedroom. Just like the rest of his apartment, everything was in proper order. Her eyes settled on a neat stack of books and movies on his nightstand. She approached to snatch them and then run out of there.

_Mission accomplished!_

Right as Rinoa was congratulating herself the bathroom door swung open. Squall walked out into his bedroom wearing nothing but a wet towel around his waist while drying off his damp hair and face with another towel.

Rinoa jumped backwards and let out a high-pitched scream of surprise.

Squall stopped toweling off his face and hair and lifted the towel from his eyes. He stood still like a deer in the headlights with his mouth agape in horror.

Selphie had heard Rinoa's scream and rushed in to help her. Squall's bedroom door bounced forcefully against the wall, cracking the paint as she barreled into his bedroom on full alert like a yellow whirlwind.

Squall suddenly flinched at the cracking noise and dropped his towel. Sadly for him, it was not the towel he'd been using on his hair.

More screaming.

He turned to dive back into his bathroom, and the door slammed firmly shut as he locked it. Nudity! Terror! Screaming! Selphie! This was Squall's worst non-time-compression nightmare!

 _I knew this would happen!_ Squall thought strongly to himself. _This is what I get for bending the rules just ONCE!_

Selphie's giggling could be heard through the door.

"Tee-hee, I thought he wore his bomber jacket in the shower! I guess I was WRONG about that, huh Rinoa?"

Rinoa slowly uncovered her eyes after she heard the bathroom door slam shut. Her face was so red it looked like she had severe sunburn.

"Let's just pretend this never happened!" Rinoa called out while grabbing the library books and running towards the door.

She had a feeling Squall was going to be a lot angrier about this than he would have been about the library fines. In retrospect, the library fines seemed to be pretty minor compared to the accidental nudity.

"Um, I'm sure the GFs will make us forget about this real soon!" she yelled while almost out the front door.

 _SORRY! SORRY! SORRY!_ she thought at him. _Next time I'll make sure to knock first._

 _NEXT TIME?!_ he yelled back at her in his head.

"Oh no, I'm so embarrassed! I'm not gonna be able to look him in the eyes for awhile," Rinoa whispered to Selphie while running out towards the corridor with her arms full of books.

"I KNOW! I'm totally not going to be looking at his face for awhile either Rinoa!" Selphie yelled loud enough for Squall to hear.

Squall's front door slammed shut and he let out a long breath as he tried to calm his heart rate.

Hopefully Selphie would be able to keep her mouth shut, but the odds of that happening were definitely not good.

He sighed and realized that unpredictable things would keep happening for as long as he was around Rinoa, he figured he'd just have to get used to it. Once again Squall resigned himself to his fate and covered his face with the palm of his hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry! I had him so scared of them barging in on him, I couldn't just NOT have it happen. Poor Squall! 
> 
> Oh and as another side note. I got the basic idea for this entire story from a dream. I think I was Rinoa and I was chasing around a cat in my dream, but that cat was somehow Squall. I picked up the cat and was petting his fluffy neck and it reminded me of his furry bomber jacket. Squall is aloof and pretty cat-like if you think about it.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first chapter fanfic that originally appeared on FFN in 2015. I just got a nice review today, so I decided to post it here. I hope I still like it and maybe somebody here will too. My memory of it is fuzzy.


End file.
